By Rick Lemonds, president & CEO
Regular readers of this column will recall that in January, I outlined how cooperative members share in the benefits of being part of our cooperative, but also must share in the ongoing costs of doing business. As these costs continue to rise, South Central Power Company will implement a $5 monthly increase in our consumer charge for residential members, effective April 1 of this year. This will raise the consumer charge portion of your monthly bill from $29 to $34. Business members will also see adjustments, and a full schedule of new rates will be available on our website, southcentralpower.com.
A rate adjustment is never something our board and leadership take lightly, but we must balance our obligation of providing safe and dependable service at the lowest possible cost with the realities of the rising costs facing our business.
What is the consumer charge?
Behind the magic of available power at the flip of a switch, whenever and wherever you need it, are workers who are on call 24/7, and a host of materials, supplies, and equipment. These are among the costs that we recover through the fixed consumer charge. To put some context around what we are seeing in terms of rising costs, here are a few details from our purchasing team.
Perhaps you’ve seen a South Central Power bucket truck operated by our workers to build new lines or conduct repairs after a storm. The cost of those trucks has increased by 31% over the last five years. On board that truck, or maybe loaded onto a trailer pulled behind it, could be the poles, transformers, wire, and other materials and supplies that are needed to build and maintain our system. Over that same time frame, those items on average have accounted for a 44% increase. Even for lower-priced items such as standard tools, we are seeing price increases. In just the past year, the cost of a standard 16-foot extension ladder that is safety-rated for electrical work has increased more than 21%. Regardless of how much electricity is used, the cost of our vegetation management program and property taxes alone is about $15 per month for a typical residential consumer.
Small items add up to big investments
It’s fair to wonder why the cost of a ladder might cause us to raise your electric bill. But, these small costs add up to large investments in order to build and maintain a system composed of nearly 12,000 miles of electric line. All told, in the last year, we invested roughly $60 million in upgrading our electric infrastructure to improve reliability and ensure that our grid is capable of meeting the needs of current and future members.
In the face of these increases, and the need for ongoing investment, we continue to challenge our team to do more with less. One of our values is responsible financial management, and we take seriously the responsibility of being good stewards of our members’ money. To that end, we operate as a not-for-profit cooperative, and any revenue we collect that we do not need to invest in or operate the business is accounted for on behalf of each of our members, and, as financial conditions allow, eventually returned to you in the form of a capital credit refund. Last year alone, we returned $11.3 million to our members and former members in the form of capital credit retirements and the budget for 2026 is a retirement of $21 million, the largest in the history of the cooperative.
The impact to you
For a typical residential member, this consumer charge adjustment will increase an average monthly bill by about 3%, and the consumer charge still represents a relatively small portion of your overall bill, less than 20%. The remaining roughly 80% of your bill comprises pass-through charges that only cover our costs for the power we purchase and third-party charges for transmission costs (represented in the generation and transmission line items on your bill), as well as your distribution charge (based on the kilowatt-hours delivered to your home) and taxes.
Thanks for being a South Central Power member, and I hope you’ll continue to watch this space for more information on our efforts to rein in costs, as well as how you can save through energy conservation and other means.
From the February 2026 issue of Ohio Cooperative Living.