Lower Valley Energy Headquarters in Afton. SVI PHOTO/DUKE DANCE

Bear Prairie, CEO of Lower Valley Energy (LVE), said the cooperatives Board of Trustees approved a new rate structure to better match costs with how electricity is actually used. “We did change rates,” Prairie said. “The board did approve a rate change that will go effective October 1.”

Under the new plan, the overall electric increase averages about 6%, though the impact will vary from member to member. Prairie said, “It’s about 6% on average for residential, but how that affects everybody is going to be very different because we also changed the rate design.” He said the cooperative is adding a demand charge of $1 per kilowatt based on monthly peak usage.

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For many average residential members, Prairie said the change may only amount to a modest monthly difference. “The average residential home, that’s going to be maybe $6, $7 in the summer, maybe $12, $15 in the winter on average,” he said. “We lowered that base charge.”

Prairie said the new structure is intended to reflect the cost of serving different types of members more accurately. “We want to make sure that the stress and the pressure and the utilization of our electric system, that they’re paying for those facilities,” he said. “So it is a more accurate rate design to make sure that we don’t have any cross subsidies.”

He said Lower Valley Energy is trying to explain the changes before the first bills arrive under the new system. “We’re really trying to get out in front of everybody, explain how this works,” Prairie said. “We want to be fully transparent and hope then when everybody gets their bills, they understand it.”

More information is available on their website, lvenergy.com.