2019 Rate Adjustments Now in Effect
Over the last year several years Canoochee EMC has successfully strived to stabilize rates. In the past, Canoochee has been forced to increase our rates by marginal amounts. These actions have been fruitful, and while it is necessary to adjust rates for 2019, they have only increased minimally. In fact, the average Canoochee member-owner will see an increase of $2.50 per month, or $30.00 per year.
“We remain committed to providing affordable power,” said Lou Ann Phillips, CEO. “It is important to remember that in a cooperative, everyone on the system is a member-owner. By addressing our current energy needs, we strengthen Canoochee’s future.”
Canoochee classifies each rate by the needs of the account. The most common rate would be Rate 1 residential accounts. The Rate 2 class is also common, typically being separately metered structures at someone’s home, but where members are not residing. Other rates include varying types of commercial, industrial, distributed generation and agricultural.
The base rate for many rate classes has increased, but no base rate was increased by more than $1.00 per month. Both Rate 1 and Rate 2 have an increase of $1.00. Some rate classes also have changes in the rate charged per Kilowatt hour (KWH). Rate 1 increased from $0.1020 to $0.1030 per KWH, and Rate 2 increased from $0.1050 to $0.1130 per KWH.
A new Agricultural Rate class has also been created. This rate is solely for agricultural rates and services that qualify as sales-tax exempt under the Georgia GATE card criteria. This new rate, Rate 11 has a base charge of $31 and the rate is $0.1050 per KWH.
Finally, we have increased the cost of our Security Yard Lights by $1.00 per light. We have not adjusted the cost of our lighting for many years, and we are still very competitive with other utilities.
It is important to remember that all changes reflect the true cost to deliver power, and other changes streamline our rate structure needs.