CEO’s Message – July 2024

URE Rate Update

Increase to Begin With August Bills

It’s not exactly news that costs have increased dramatically over the last few years. Sometimes we see those changes quickly, like with gasoline, but for other changes, it may take a while as inflation affects the supply chain of the products and services we use. URE is not immune to the effects of cost increases on everything from gasoline to transformers. Although we operate in an efficient way and work to reduce rate impacts, inflation and other external factors continue to place upward pressure on prices to run our business. That increased pressure will result in changes to your URE bill beginning in August.

For Rate A, applicable to homes and most small businesses, the generation cost will be increasing from $0.03788 to $0.04133 per kilowatt-hour – that’s about 3-tenths of a cent.

The Rate A Distribution Energy Charge will remain stable at $0.03661 for all kWh sold in Rate A, while the monthly distribution service charge will increase from $25 to $30. The minimum charge will remain the same, at $35 per month.

For Rate T, applicable 3-phase services, which apply primarily to larger commercial loads, the Generation Energy Charge will decrease from $0.02361 to $0.02000, and the Generation Demand Charge will increase from $5.96 to $8.03 per kW.

For the distribution services portion of the 3-phase bills, the Distribution Demand Charge will increase from $2.50 to $3.50 per kW, while the Distribution Energy Charge will decrease from $0.01650 to $0.01355 per kWh.

We expect the average residential electric member’s cost to increase about 5% over the course of a year, while 3-phase bills will increase about the same or less, depending on usage.

Here are the natural gas rate changes you’ll see on your August bill:

• Small Gas Service — Residential and Small Commercial (Natural Gas Rate SGS) – The natural gas monthly service charge increases from $30 to $35. The per-CCF natural gas charge drops from $0.25 to $0.20. These costs partially offset each other but will increase an average member’s total annual costs by about 4.3%.
• Medium Gas Service — Commercial (Rate MGS) – The natural gas monthly service charge increases from $75 to $125. The first 250 CCF will decrease from $0.35 to $0.305, all gas from 251 to 1000 CCF will decrease from $0.30 to $0.255, and any gas sold over 1,000 CCF will decrease from $0.27 to $0.225. These rate changes mostly offset each other.

While it may be true that energy costs are rising, electricity and natural gas remain great values relative to the steep increases in everything else we use daily. You can be assured that URE and our partners at Buckeye Power continue doing everything we can to ensure our members retain a safe, reliable, and affordable source of energy now and into the future. As a member, you are an owner of this utility, so everything we do is with your benefit in mind – and that’s the cooperative difference.