CEO Report

September 2011

Rate Restructure Ensures Fairness and Continued Reliability

As your hometown electric utility, FKEC is expected to provide reliable and safe electrical service as its top priority. As a not-for-profit cooperative, FKEC is also guided by a set of principles that require us to ensure that all members contribute equitably to the capital of the cooperative.

            During a recent evaluation of our rate structure and revenue, we noticed the distribution of cost among members had, unintentionally, become unbalanced. In short, high use members were contributing slightly more to the cost of providing electrical service than low use members. To address this inequality, we have restructured our rates to more fairly distribute costs among all members regardless of the amount of electricity consumed.

            This rate restructure is revenue neutral, meaning it does not increase revenue for the cooperative. Every member-consumer will now pay the same “Daily System Access Rate” and it will be indicated as such on all monthly electric bills beginning October 1, 2011. This replaces the “Customer Charge” noted on past bills. You will also notice the “Equity Charge” is reduced to zero on next month’s bills. 

            The change to individual bills will be minimal. You may see a small decrease or increase in your overall monthly bill, depending on your power consumption.

            To provide reliable electric service, FKEC must do more than merely cover the cost of energy. Our utility expenses include ongoing maintenance and improvements of the power lines, poles, substations, green initiatives and the other infrastructure necessary to guarantee that electricity is available every time you need it.

            At FKEC we are constantly performing routine maintenance and conducting upgrades to ensure reliability and maintain a strong electrical system.

            The current rate restructure will ensure that every member of our co-op contributes equally to building a strong future for our power system.

            As part of our ongoing system strengthening program, we are proud to have recently completed a two-year project that drastically upgraded two of our substations (see page 3). We are also currently strengthening our system by replacing distribution insulators on lines running over the water crossing between Indian Key Fill and Long Key (see facing page).