Definition of "ratepayer" [rate•pay•er]

• One that pays rates: utility ratepayers. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "As for everyone having solar panels on their roof, selling excess power back to "the system", keep in mind that the power system is set up to distrubute power from a few big generating stations to you, the "ratepayer"."
• "The independents on the council are in the old-fashioned "ratepayer" =independent Tory mold."
• "“Stephen Ward, chief of staff for Senate Energy Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N. M, said Wednesday that lawmakers fear a ratepayer backlash” if carbon pollution is capped, telling “a room full of alternative-energy financiers at the Lazard Capital Markets Alternative Energy Investor Summit” that he foresees “a more modest bill” than Waxman-Markey coming from the Senate."