News, Minutes & Agendas
Surprise Valley Electric Notice for Rate Increase
At its regularly scheduled meeting held on January 25, 2018, the Board of Directors of Surprise Valley Electrification Corp. determined that a rate increase was necessary in order to pay for needed system improvements to its transmission facilities, substations, and increase in the BPA transmission costs. Craig Joiner, SVEC Board President, addressed this need at the Annual Membership Meeting last September outlining the cooperative’s recently completed Construction Work Plan to replace, rebuild, or relocate aging powerlines and facilities that have a high risk of failure. The Construction Work Plan also identified points on our system where reclosers and switches may be installed to sectionalize more of our system so that fewer accounts are affected by a power outage and to provide better system reliability and safety to both members and line workers.
During this and future years, we will be focusing on replacing transmission and distribution poles. The Cooperative’s electrical system has over 2100 aging transmission poles that are pushing 55 plus years of service. Over the past year, all the transmission poles have been tested allowing us to identify nearly 700 poles which need immediate replacement. A transmission pole change out program will be initiated this year.
By following the Construction Work Plan, the Cooperative will spend roughly $12 million for the needed improvements that have been identified. Some of these costs are a part of normal construction and maintenance, but many are above our routine costs and will need additional financing to complete.
All rate schedules will incur an increase of 8/10th of a cent ($0.008) per kWh on the energy charge to recover these investments. The rate change will begin with the bills issued in April 2018.
There will be no increase to the basic or demand charges.
The following is a rate comparison for an SVEC residential account using 1000 kilowatt hours per month. Under the old rate of $0.074 per kWh and a basic charge $15, the cost for this energy use is $89. Under the new rate of $0.082 and a $15 basic charge, the cost for 1000 kWh is $97. The SVEC residential account using 1000 kWh per month will increase by $8.00 per month.
The cost for operating a 75 HP irrigation pump for 1500 hours in a season is $6,658 on the old rate of $0.0585. This cost will increase to $7,404 on the new rate of $0.0665. The actual increase for each account will vary based on actual energy used.
THE RENEWABLE RECIPE OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST
Below you will see a link to a very interesting video from RiverPartners, giving education on clean hydropower.
THE RENEWABLE RECIPE VIDEO
