Membership Matters

January 2005

Be Prepared Before a Storm Hits

Power outages can occur during or after a snow or ice storm if power lines are damaged. The following safety tips will help you to be prepared, safe, and more comfortable if severe weather causes an outage.

Prepare an emergency kit including:

• Battery powered radio
• Bottled water
• Canned and non-perishable food
• A flashlight
• Extra batteries
• Manual can opener
• First-aid kit
• Extra blankets and quilts

In your kit, include an emergency telephone list to contact the police, fire department, hospital, Blue Ridge Electric, and local emergency management office if needed. You may also want to have a traditional telephone on hand since cordless phones don’t work without power.

Take these steps if you experience a power outage:

• Verify if you are the only one in your neighborhood without power. If that’s the case, check your breaker box to make sure all breakers are in the ON position. If you still don’t have power, call Blue Ridge Electric at any of the local numbers listed on the back of this newsletter to report the outage.
• Be sure to turn off all appliances, especially any heat-producing electric equipment such as electric stoves, toaster ovens, irons, or hair curlers. Leave one light fixture on so you’ll know when power is restored.
• If you use candles, keep them away from furniture, curtains, or any other flammable material. Never leave children alone in a room with a burning candle or open flame.
• Never try to use gas stoves, charcoal or briquette grills or camp stoves to heat your home. They are designed to be used only outdoors where there is adequate ventilation due to the amount of toxic fumes they produce. If you use them indoors you will rapidly eliminate the amount of oxygen in your house and increase the carbon monoxide inside your home. Carbon monoxide causes serious intoxication problems and even death.

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Members Only News
-For Members of Blue Ridge Electric

WPCA Reminder

As a reminder from the December issue of The Enlightener, a wholesale power cost adjustment (WPCA) will begin appearing on bills starting in January 2005. Rising wholesale power costs are a result of the price increase in products that are used in the generation of electricity such as natural gas and coal.

The WPCA is necessary due to an approximately $4 million increase in wholesale power costs of the electricity your cooperative purchases for its members. While the cooperative was able to cover half of that amount by reducing its annual margins for 2004, it was necessary to implement a monthly WPCA of $1.00 per 1000 kilowatt hours (kwh) on members’ bills beginning this month.

The average residential member uses 850 kwh per month, so the WPCA cost for an average monthly residential bill will be 85 cents.

The WPCA is a direct “pass through” charge that recovers the increases in the monthly pricing variables in wholesale power and could fluctuate throughout the year.

Resolutions Due

Members may now submit proposed resolutions for consideration of presentation at the 2005 Annual Membership Meeting.

Proposed resolutions should state their relevance to the cooperative’s mission, objectives, operations, and how they relate to the membership.

Resolutions must be in writing and received by 5 p.m., March 25, 2005. Address resolutions to Doug Johnson, PO Box 112, Lenoir, NC, 28645.

Proposed resolutions are reviewed by the Resolutions Committee for compliance with policy. Recommendations for resolutions to be presented at the annual meeting are made by the committee to the Board of Directors at their April meeting.

The Resolutions Committee is composed of chairpersons of the cooperative’s district Member Advisory Committees and members of the Board of Directors’ Policy and Member Relations Committee.

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The Perspective

An Editorial by Chief Executive Officer Doug Johnson
Load Control Update

As a result of deregulation of the wholesale power market and the effects it’s had on the way electric energy is priced, your cooperative is experiencing fewer opportunities to reduce power costs through our load management system. Load control provided substantial savings on wholesale power cost to Blue Ridge Electric for a number of years and we passed the savings on to our members through monthly bill credits and lower rates. Unfortunately, the savings from this program are no longer available to us.

When originally introduced in the 1980s, load management – or load control – systems helped electric utilities reduce loads on the power distribution system which lessened the need to purchase wholesale power during expensive peak periods. As the wholesale power market changed, however, power pricing also changed. The wholesale market pricing of electricity is now driven by energy usage (kilowatt hours) rather than kilowatt demand. Consequently, the market value of load control has greatly decreased, causing us to make a decision to phase out both the operational use of our program and the payment of credits to our participating members.

The phase out begins this February with a reduction in the load control credits issued for water heaters and air conditioners for participating members. Effective February 2005, the credit for water heaters will change from $1.50 to $1. For air conditioners, the credit goes from $3.50 to $2. Additionally, we will be controlling less frequently in 2005. The load control credit program is projected to end January 4, 2006.

Due to the high cost of removing the load control devices from members homes, we are requesting that our members allow us to leave the units in place although they will be inactive starting January 2006. It is a possibility that load control could provide economic benefit in the future should the way electric wholesale power is priced change back to a peak demand type of price structure. Should this happen, we would reactivate both the program and the credits.

We presently have almost 20,000 member homes enrolled in this program, and the cooperative is grateful for your willingness over the years to participate in the load control program. I encourage you to be patient during this period of time, because I believe at some point in the future we will see value again for managing the demand for electricity.

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It Pays to be Timely

Blue Ridge Electric and all businesses incur costs when bills aren’t paid on time. These costs result from time spent on service calls and administrative duties connected with late payments. To help cover these additional operating costs, charges are passed on to members who pay late to avoid unfairly spreading costs to members who are timely with their payments.

Blue Ridge Electric understands that extenuating circumstances sometimes occur. To give members additional time to pay their bill in these situations, the cooperative grants one no-cost time extension per calendar year. Up to two additional extensions may be granted during a calendar year for $25 each. The $25 is deducted from your bill if it’s paid at the time the extension is requested and granted. If the member doesn’t pay $25 at the time of the request, the amount is an additional charge that’s added to the members’ bill. If the bill isn’t paid as agreed upon under the set amount of time, the member’s service is subject to cut off.

While we work with members during unusual circumstances, we also have a duty to keep the cooperative in sound financial condition and to administer policies in a fair manner for all members.

Published monthly by Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation for its 52,099 members.

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