Safety and reliability commitment continues in the New Year
Thomas W. Howard, CEO/General Manager
As we turn the page on a new year, we look forward to another year of serving you – our member-owners. Our 88th Annual Meeting of Members is right around the corner, and plans for the Feb. 3 event are underway. We are committed to keeping you informed about key issues that continue to challenge the electric industry all year long.
This time last year, a rate increase was announced to the Callaway Electric Cooperative membership. It was the first rate increase implemented since the spring of 2019. As we look to 2024, the cooperative will face an additional 8.4% wholesale power increase. The cost of power is the most significant expense of providing cooperative members with reliable power.
Along with power costs, material and supply costs for new services and maintenance continue to increase. Vendors are raising prices on services. As the board and management team work to balance these costs and remain focused on providing safe, reliable and quality electricity, a rate increase for Callaway Electric members is unfortunately necessary. While we never like to increase rates, please know that your electric cooperative is steadfast in keeping the costs we can control as low and affordable as possible.
Electric rates will increase on the May 1, 2024 electric bill
The budget has been prepared, and the board has approved a 7% revenue increase for 2024. This will affect all classes of residential and commercial members.
What does this mean for you as a cooperative member? Our average usage by residential members is 1,200 kilowatt-hours per month. Those falling within the average can expect an 8.7% increase in their bill, equating to approximately $16.80 per month. The increase is effective beginning with usage on March 23 and first appearing on the May 1 electric bill. More details are included on the inside cover of this publication.
Proposed EPA rule threatens future reliability
As I have shared over the past few years, federal climate change legislation/regulation has been a growing concern and has the potential to impact affordable and reliable electric service. The latest proposed rule by the Environmental Protection Agency targets the nation’s power plants to limit greenhouse gas emissions from new and existing fossil fuel-fired electric generating units.
The rule would require significant carbon dioxide emissions controls that would be increasingly stringent the longer the utility plans to run the unit. These restrictions would start in 2030 and endanger new and existing natural gas plants. They all but ensure coal units would shut down by 2035, if not before.
The electric cooperative industry continues to make clear the message that safe, reliable and responsible electric service must be provided through practical energy decisions. The effort to shut down fossil-fueled power plants with no technology available today to replace them reliably and affordably is unrealistic. It puts every consumer’s electric reliability and personal safety at risk.
Callaway Electric joins our energy provider, Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc (AECI) and the 51 distribution cooperatives they serve in Missouri, southeast Iowa and northeast Oklahoma to use our voice to educate decision-makers and members about the risk of acting too fast on a plan for zero carbon emissions. We assure you that AECI will continue to maintain a balanced portfolio of generation resources, putting your safety and electric reliability first. A balanced energy portfolio must include dispatchable generation that is always available (e.g., coal, natural gas, nuclear, hydropower) and not solely intermittent, such as wind and solar, which are not available when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.
Board and staff ready to visit with members
If you would like to further discuss the change to electric rates coming this spring, we invite you to stop by the co-op on Wednesday, Jan. 3. Our board and staff will be available from 3-6 p.m. in the Cooperative Community Room at our headquarters in Fulton. We’ll be ready to visit more about how the rate affects you, ways you can ease the increase through energy efficiency choices or billing options, Callabyte, ground source heat pumps or even the future of the electric industry.
Also, as mentioned above, the 88th Annual Meeting of Members is planned for Saturday, Feb. 3, at the cooperative. We look forward to seeing members there as well. It will be another opportunity to hear reports about the business of your electric cooperative. Registration will open at 10:30 a.m., with lunch served from 11 a.m.-12:15 p.m. and the business meeting at 12:30 p.m. The Official Meeting Notice will arrive in your mailbox soon with more details for the annual meeting.