Ed Crowell, Chairman of the Cobb EMC Board of Directors
The company and its chairman insist the changes will result in unchanged or lowered bills for more than 80 percent of members.
“Apples to apples, whatever you spent in July of 2012, in July of 2013 you’re going to pay less,” Chairman Ed Crowell said. “The service charge accounts for the fixed costs of every customer, whether they have electricity flowing or not. The wiring, the meter, that stays the same. What we found when we tried to reduce rates was that the Wholesale Power Adjustment had been built up over the years with fixed costs, rather than increasing the base service fee. It hasn’t been bill clearly in the past.”
“I’m very glad to say we’re reducing rates,” Crowell said. “It beats the heck out of an increase.”
Beginning with January bills, the Wholesale Power Adjustment (WPA) will decrease from 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour to 1.7 cents and moved into the base rates.
An outside firm that the utility refused to name spent six months studying rates of the Marietta-based electric membership corporation.
The company said in a news release that the changes will result in a savings of $4.09 per month, or about 3.7 percent at a summer electric energy usage of 1000 kWh.
The changes, Crowell said, “make everybody’s bill clearer.”
But the few thousand Cobb EMC members in the south Georgia Pataula district still pay lower rates than metro-area members, Crowell said.
“We dealt with Pataula and put them on a schedule so that by the end of 2013 they’ll be paying the same rates,” Crowell said. “Their rates will be increasing, because they’ll be coming up to the proper rates.”
In other EMC news, the board of directors has engaged a California firm, Clifton Larson Allen, to conduct the forensic audit and that work has begun, said director Malcolm Swanson, who chairs the board’s audit committee.
Also, spokesman Mark Justice said the company has refunded $2.2 million in capital credits. In April, the company announced plans to retire more than $7 million in credits owed to members from 1956 through 1971.
There were 31,000 members during those years, the company has said. Of those who have received payouts so far, 511 are current members, Justice said. Prior to 2012, Cobb EMC last retired capital credits in 1976.
Cobb EMC is a nonprofit electric distribution utility with more than 170,000 members in Cobb, Cherokee, Paulding, Bartow and Fulton counties in metro Atlanta, and Quitman, Randolph, Clay and Calhoun counties in south Georgia.
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"Southern Power, a Southern Company subsidiary, has been selected to supply Cobb Electric Membership Corporation (EMC) electricity to supplement its current generation resources for a seven-year period beginning in 2016. The power purchase agreement – which calls for the sale of at least 325 megawatts annually – is the first such contract between Southern Power and Marietta, Ga.-based Cobb EMC."
Where is the AUDIT???????????????
It's a shame that all those in the know have been little chickens and not spoken out.
But how much will our bills go up in the non-summer months where we use much less power and yet the fixed charge is going up. Where is that statistic? How much will these bills be increasing?
To uninterested below: You are obviously a Brownie plant.
Bring on the audit please!!!!
If you want to reduce rates get rid of the incestous power supply deal cut between Brown and the company his Auburn buddy founded Eagle Energy; now EDF Trading NA.
Hopefully the DA election will bring change.
How are Chip Nelson's promised retirement plans and replacement going?
We need a Cobb EMC owner/lawyer to step up and sue for refunds over subsidizing Pataula. There is no reason why they are not paying full price and I can't afford to carry them when I can't deduct them from my income tax as a dependant.
There are some Volunteer organizations that could use your excess energy. Especially now around the Holiday season.
injured Vets especially.
You are obviously a Brownie plant.