|
How the cooperative difference affects your cost of electricity
The people who receive electricity from electric power associations in Mississippi are not just customers, they are members of their cooperative. Members enjoy certain rights that customers don’t have with other electric providers.
For instance, as an electric power association member, you can vote in the annual election for the board candidates of your choice; your association’s board is composed of people who live and work in the very territory that your cooperative serves.
Many people, however, don’t understand the various ways their membership in a cooperative affects their rates. Electric power associations’ rates are based on two main components—the actual cost of the wholesale power we buy from the company that generates electricity, and the cost for us to get that power to you. Our power provider sets wholesale power costs.
Mississippi’s electric power associations buy wholesale power from a mix of sources, including South Mississippi Electric Power Association (a generation-and-transmission cooperative based in Hattiesburg), the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and other sources. These power providers work hard to keep rates low while guaranteeing a stable supply of electricity.
The second component—the cost for us to get power to you—is all other operational costs, including the cost for poles and lines, the cost and maintenance of trucks and buildings, actual employee costs like wages and benefits, and the costs associated with maintaining records, like the printing and mailing of bills.
One of our biggest challenges now is the rising cost of fuels used not only to generate power but for daily utility operations. Electric power associations distribute electricity through literally thousands of miles of power line. Our crews are always on the move, maintaining lines, building new lines, connecting new services, repairing storm damage and clearing brush from power line rights of way. All these tasks have a direct bearing on the reliability of your electric service, and they are vitally important to our operation.
As fuel costs continue to creep upward, we are finding new solutions for keeping our costs of operation as low as possible. Operating efficiently is one of the strengths of electric power associations. We were organized, after all, to provide affordable electric service to areas of the state that existing investor-owned utilities found too expensive to serve. By forming locally owned and controlled electric power associations, Mississippians secured affordable electric service for their rural homes and farms.
That goal continues today, some 60 years after Mississippi’s first electric power associations were created and began distributing electricity.
A great advantage of being served by an electric power association is that we work only for you; we don’t have stockholders expecting a big quarterly dividend. We are a not-for-profit enterprise, which means our focus is providing you with economical, reliable service.
Everything we do—whether planning for system growth or rebuilding in the wake of natural disasters—is designed to keep your energy costs among the lowest in the nation.
PAST
EDITORIALS
|
