All utilities impose a flat monthly basic charge, as approved by the State Corporation Commission, designed to recover certain fixed expenses associated with making utility service available to your location. The utility incurs these expenses regardless of how much energy you consume. These expenses may include customer account expenses such metering, billing, and payment processing as well as fixed costs associated with your individual service line such as depreciation, maintenance, and financing costs.
These utilities include electric, water, and sewage services and also include communication utilities such as cell phone, internet, satellite, and cable TV service providers.
The fixed expenses are currently covered by the access charge and a variable rate called an energy delivery charge. The energy delivery charge is dependent on the volume of electricity sold to help cover the expenses the access charge falls short on covering.
Historically, the cooperative has not been able to recover the fixed costs of our plant investment in the fixed monthly access charge. The remainder is currently recovered in the variable per kWh charge.
Flattening the variable rate and shifting that cost over to the fixed access charge will more equitably distribute the overall cost of electric distribution service across the cooperative’s membership.
As energy efficiency measures and technology are deployed, over time a member’s energy usage will start to decrease, in turn, the Cooperative will not recover the fixed costs associated with owning and operating distribution plant when the member needs it.
In general, the rate adjustment will result in either a decrease or an increase to a standard monthly residential bill depending on how much energy is used in a given month. The cooperative anticipates that more than 2/3 of the membership should see a decrease in their overall monthly bills as a result of the proposed rate adjustment.
A member services representative can provide a projection of how your bill total could compare once the new rates take effect on January 1, 2024. Submit a “Contact Us” form, use our Webchat feature, or call us at (757) 787-9750.
More information can be found for each rate class affected by the adjustment:
Schedule A-1 Residential and Church Service
Schedule A-2 Farm, Civic, and Ancillary Related Residential Service
Schedule TOU-A-1 Residential Time of Use
Schedule B Small Commercial and Industrial
Schedule TOU-B Small Commercial and Industrial Time of Use
