By Rick Lemonds, president & CEO
It seems like no matter where you turn these days, the prices we are paying for groceries, car repairs, interest rates on loans, and other everyday needs continue to rise. Energy costs are no exception. The cost South Central Power Company pays for the power we purchase, as well as the cost to deliver it to you, continues to increase.
Our local fixed and variable costs are also rising. The primary drivers of these increases are related to the depreciation and interest costs of upgrading the electric system. From 2014 through 2023, your cooperative invested almost $300 million into the utility plant and for 2024 and beyond, we project the need to invest more than $60 million annually to continue to improve reliability and make sure the electric infrastructure is capable of meeting the needs of the current and future members.
Much of this investment is recovered through the monthly “consumer charge,” which covers a portion of the cost it takes to ensure power is available to you when and where you need it. And while the consumer charge remains a small portion of the bill for our average residential member, it is an important component of the overall rate structure, as everyone connected to the electric system pays this monthly fee regardless of the amount of electricity used. For a typical residential member, as of December 2024, the consumer charge accounted for less than 16% of a $172.20 bill.
Our goal is to provide you with dependable service at the lowest possible cost, and we are committed to keeping increases in the cost of electricity as modest as possible. Effective April 2025, we are implementing a $2 increase to our monthly residential consumer charge, raising it from $27 to $29. There are many factors as to why your bill may rise or fall from month to month, including weather patterns that correlate to your electric usage and the prices for generation and transmission service.
If you’re concerned about the overall trend of higher energy costs and the bottom-line number on your bill, know that we share your concerns. That’s why we continue to advocate with state and federal policymakers for responsible energy policies that ensure reliable power at reasonable costs.
We also strive to educate and inform our members about steps they can take at home and other power delivery points to use electricity responsibly and lower their monthly bills. Visit our website to explore strategies anyone can use to save on energy costs — we’re here to help.
We’ll continue to use this space in Ohio Cooperative Living to keep you informed about what we’re doing to help manage costs and what you can do to reduce your bills. Thank you for being a South Central Power member and a reader of this column. We hope to see you at one of our five upcoming member meetings in the spring.
From the February 2025 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.