■ commentary Moving Forward
newsletter, you will see an introduction to the new board of trustees that now govern your cooperative.
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While the actions that caused the turnover in your co-op leadership was disruptive, I am excited about the engagement and participation of Choctaw Electric’s new board in moving our cooperative forward.
Good decisions point to progress for Choctaw Electric n this month’s
cHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER BY JOE HARRIS
The new trustees are well-educated with varied professional backgrounds that will be very useful in the performance of their duties on the board. It is the breadth of their skill sets and business knowledge that will help Choctaw Electric succeed in today’s business climate of ever-changing government regulations and pressures on the cost of doing utility business.
At the moment, your board members are being inundated with information about the electric cooperative
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In evaluating the challenges ahead for Choctaw Electric—and there are many—one cannot discount the need for the board of trustees and cooperative employees to regain the trust of the membership. I believe the values and character expressed and exhibited by these individuals will succeed in restoring that most basic of emotions— trust.
I hope you join me in supporting your board of trustees as they provide the leadership and guidance that will allow Choctaw Electric to make progress. The challenges ahead require strong, sensible leaders. Its time to get to work.
industry, its business practices, regulations we must work within, membership questions, and the challenges we face in serving southeast Oklahoma with the most reliable and affordable electricity possible. I am glad to see the deliberative manner in which they make decisions that can be far reaching for your cooperative.
SEND US EMAIL: Please email questions for Ask Your Co-op to: Jennifer Boling,
jboling@choctawelectric.coop. Or, mail questions to Choctaw Electric Cooperative, PO Box 758, Hwy 93 North, Hugo,Oklahoma 74743.
CO-OP ASK YOUR
■ What is the monthly meter charge that appears on my electric bill?
The monthly meter charge covers a lot more than the price of your meter. The meter charge is CEC’s basic customer service fee, and you can find this fee on virtually every bill for every electric utility in the country. That’s because there are a lot of other expenses involved in operating an electric utility that are not covered by the fluctuating sales of electricity.
Whether a meter turns or not, an electric utility must pay for the fixed cost of having safe and reliable service available when it is needed. This expense includes the cost of maintaining power lines, upgrading or replacing equipment, and labor costs, to name a few.
In evaluating the challenges ahead for Choctaw Electric—and there are many—one cannot discount the need for the board of trustees and cooperative employees to regain the trust of the membership.
A fixed customer service charge, or meter charge as CEC refers to it, is a more financially sound method of covering the expense of fixed costs. Depending on kilowatt-hour sales to cover these expenses would place the reliability of your service in the hands of Oklahoma weather conditions. As you know, when the weather fluctuates, so does the sale of electricity.
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This type of rate is also recommended by the federal government. As time passes and more members increase their energy efficiency and use renewables, your co-op must increasingly recover its fixed cost from fixed billing units. This is called “decoupling” and it’s part of the Public Utility Regulatory and Policy Act. Without it, your co-op’s efforts to encourage energy efficiency would actually place it at a financial disadvantage.
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