During our past board meeting, our Board of Directors approved a rate increase and a restructure of rates. This decision was not made lightly. With an increase in purchased power costs, inflation of materials and supplies, and additional operation costs Tri-County Electric had to increase KWH rates, service availability, dusk to dawn light charge, and implement a demand charge.
Beginning January 1, 2024, members will begin paying for a portion of the demand each member creates. You'll notice on your February bill for January usage that you'll have a $1 per kW (demand) charge. If your kW (demand) is 11, you'll pay $11 for that month. We can now capture this because of our new technology and meters. We can bill our members the way we, as a co-op, are billed.
Tri-County Electric pays for electricity based on the co-op’s collective peak demand and that charge is about 50% of our total purchase power cost. We must plan and be prepared to meet each member’s demand needs at any given time.
For more information please visit https://www.tricountyelectric.org/demand