Coastal Electric Cooperative to implement rate increase

For more than a decade, Coastal Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive has worked inten­tion­al­ly to keep your elec­tric­i­ty rates sta­ble. In fact, we have not imple­ment­ed a rate increase since 2014. That’s some­thing we’re proud of, and it’s a respon­si­bil­i­ty we take seri­ous­ly.

Now, for the first time in more than 10 years, we will be imple­ment­ing a rate adjust­ment. This deci­sion was not made light­ly.

As your com­mu­ni­ty-owned, not-for-prof­it elec­tric coop­er­a­tive, our mis­sion is sim­ple: Deliv­er safe, reli­able elec­tric ser­vice while keep­ing rates as afford­able as pos­si­ble for our mem­bers. Every rate deci­sion is the result of care­ful analy­sis. We con­tin­u­al­ly review our costs and expens­es, look­ing for ways to oper­ate more effi­cient­ly and pro­tect our mem­bers from unnec­es­sary increas­es.

Over the past decade, we’ve tak­en inten­tion­al steps to man­age costs, includ­ing:

• Lock­ing in longer-term fuel con­tracts when prices were low to reduce the cost of gen­er­at­ing elec­tric­i­ty.
• Using tech­nol­o­gy to stream­line oper­a­tions and con­trol oper­at­ing expens­es.
• Plan­ning ahead for Plant Vog­tle Units 3 and 4 com­ing online, using mar­gins to cush­ion the finan­cial impact for as long as pos­si­ble. (Georgia’s elec­tric coop­er­a­tives share a 30% own­er­ship in Plant Vog­tle.)
• Work­ing with our gen­er­a­tion part­ners to share costs, increase effi­cien­cy and expand our ener­gy sup­ply.
• Explor­ing mul­ti­ple sourc­ing options for mate­ri­als and equip­ment to keep expens­es down.

These efforts allowed us to avoid rais­ing rates for more than a decade. But despite our best plan­ning, costs have con­tin­ued to rise and, even­tu­al­ly, rates must reflect the true cost of pro­vid­ing pow­er.

Why now?

We don’t have to tell you that near­ly every­thing costs more today than it did a few years ago. You see it at the gro­cery store, the gas pump and in every­day expens­es.

The same is true for elec­tric­i­ty. The cost to sup­ply pow­er has risen sig­nif­i­cant­ly, includ­ing:

• Oper­a­tion and main­te­nance expens­es.
• Equip­ment and mate­ri­als.
• Con­struc­tion to keep up with growth in our area.
• Invest­ments in infra­struc­ture to main­tain reli­a­bil­i­ty.
• Whole­sale ener­gy costs.

Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s ser­vice ter­ri­to­ry includes some of the fastest-grow­ing coun­ties in the state – led by Long Coun­ty (the third-fastest) at 35% pop­u­la­tion growth since 2020 and Bryan Coun­ty (the sev­enth-fastest) with 19% pop­u­la­tion growth since 2020. Not far behind are McIn­tosh Coun­ty at 12% and Lib­er­ty Coun­ty at 6%.

In some ways, growth is ben­e­fi­cial because with a co-op, costs are shared among mem­bers. At the same time, it’s expen­sive to grow.

New homes, busi­ness­es and indus­tries require new lines, sub­sta­tions and equip­ment. We must build and main­tain infra­struc­ture not only for today’s needs, but also for tomorrow’s demand. Our cur­rent rates are no longer suf­fi­cient to ful­ly recov­er the cost of pow­er sup­ply and oper­a­tions.

As a not-for-prof­it coop­er­a­tive, we don’t gen­er­ate prof­its for share­hold­ers. We are owned and gov­erned by the mem­bers we serve. Your rates must cov­er the cost of pro­vid­ing elec­tric­i­ty — no more, no less.

What’s chang­ing?

Begin­ning May 1, Coastal Elec­tric Cooperative’s Res­i­den­tial Ener­gy Charge will increase from 10.79 cents per kWh to 12 cents per kWh for mem­bers on the stan­dard Res­i­den­tial Ser­vice rate.

At the same time, the pow­er cost adjust­ment (PCA) will decrease from $0.00985 per kWh to $0.003 per kWh.

The PCA can be either a charge or a cred­it. Because the cost of gen­er­at­ing elec­tric­i­ty fluctuates—influenced by fuel prices, how much of each fuel is used and whole­sale pow­er mar­ket conditions—the PCA helps ensure we nei­ther over-col­lect nor under-col­lect from mem­bers. By adjust­ing the Ener­gy Charge to bet­ter reflect actu­al costs, we are able to reduce the PCA.

In addi­tion, every member’s Facil­i­ties Charge will increase by $4.50, from $33 to $37.50. The Facil­i­ties Charge cov­ers costs that do not vary with use. Even before a sin­gle kilo­watt-hour is used, there are costs asso­ci­at­ed with deliv­er­ing elec­tric­i­ty to your home or busi­ness, includ­ing poles and lines, right-of-way main­te­nance, inter­est, depre­ci­a­tion, insur­ance and labor. These shared costs are divid­ed among mem­bers.

With all those changes, for exam­ple, a res­i­den­tial mem­ber who uses 1,500 kWh in a month will see an esti­mat­ed increase of approx­i­mate­ly $13.37 per month.

For mem­bers using Advance Pay, the rate will increase from 14.52 cents per kWh to 15.5 cents per kWh. That means, for a typ­i­cal day of 35-kWh use, the cost of ener­gy before tax­es would increase from about $5.05 to $5.43.

Rates for Gen­er­al Ser­vice, Time-of-Use and Indus­tri­al Ser­vice mem­bers will also increase.

The new rate design was approved by your mem­ber-elect­ed board of direc­tors with one goal in mind: pro­tect­ing your access to safe, reli­able pow­er not only now, but also long term.

Look­ing ahead

We under­stand that many in our com­mu­ni­ty are fac­ing finan­cial pres­sures. No one wel­comes ris­ing costs, espe­cial­ly for some­thing as essen­tial as elec­tric­i­ty.

Our hope is that this rate adjust­ment will not just set us on a sta­ble path for the short term but will instead posi­tion our coop­er­a­tive to recov­er ris­ing costs and pro­vide reli­able ser­vice for the next 10 years. While none of us can pre­dict the future, we can plan care­ful­ly and act respon­si­bly.

Our mem­bers count on us every day for the ener­gy they need, and we take that respon­si­bil­i­ty seri­ous­ly. We are com­mit­ted to main­tain­ing afford­able rates, prepar­ing for ris­ing demand and ensur­ing that when you flip a switch, the lights come on.

The com­mit­ment to serve our mem­bers will guide us through 2026 and for many years to come.