Didn’t rates just go up? Why are they going up again so soon?

There was a rate increase in 2022 that was larger in scope and coincided with an unexpected increase in ODEC’s PCA. It raised residential bills an average of about $18 per month.

While the last increase went into effect in May 2022, SVEC’s filing for those changes with the SCC were based on numbers from March 2019 through March 2020.

Inflation since January 2021 has put more pressure on the cooperative, which, as a not-for-profit utility, can only rely on revenue through the timely payments of members (i.e., there are no investors who inject cash into our operations).

The 2022 rate revision was SVEC’s first change in rates since 2014, and it was pursued, in part, to help fund the advanced metering infrastructure project, installation of a fiber network and administrative costs associated with introducing new programming, such as community solar.