With the ever-increasing cost of living, San Isabel Electric — as a not-for-profit utility — also faces rising costs of doing business. Fortunately, most years, these increases are gradual.
Imagine a scale: on one side is, our member-owners; on the other is the co-op’s operational costs. Each year, small stones are added to the co-op’s side as prices for poles, wire, labor — everything — slowly increase.
SIEA has a long, proud history of maintaining steady rates. But over the years and recently, we have had small rate increases. We are very aware of the impact a rate increase has on you, our member-owners. Utilizing cost-saving strategies, we’ve been able to maintain a steady balance for more than a decade. At this point, the scale needs to be rebalanced with our new strategy.
We’ve invested tens of millions of dollars in our distribution system the past several years to reduce outage times and harden our grid from wildfires. Those initial investments get paid for over time and impact our rates. We know from our survey responses that you’ve seen the difference in outage times, and that you want us to continue providing safe, reliable, affordable service.
Going forward, we’re taking a more gradual approach, as we’ve done the past two years: smaller, incremental annual increases, if necessary, to maintain our current level of service. These adjustments cover everything including power supply costs, materials, fire mitigation, labor, and system improvements.
In November 2024, the SIEA board approved a $5 increase of the residential grid access charge. Effective January 1, 2025, the new access charge will be $35.
I encourage all members to consider taking a look at SIEA’s Time-of-Day rate. Most of our member-owners pay a flat rate for their residential electricity. However, SIEA offers an alternative rate that could help some members save money by making lifestyle changes, such as switching from propane heat to electric heat or replacing your gas water heater with an electric one.
Our rebate programs can help reduce some of the upfront costs as well, and our Energy Services team is ready to support by connecting you with local contractors, product information, and even financing right on your electric bill at low rates. For more information about qualifying for the time-of-day rate please visit siea.com/ets or siea.com/timeofday.
Recent Comments