SMECO Rate Adjustment Approved
The Maryland Public Service Commission has approved an adjustment to the distribution service rate for Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative.
The new rates represent an increase of about $7.36 on the bill of an average residential customer. This amount will be more than offset by the decrease in SMECO’s Standard Offer Service energy charges, a decrease that customers have realized over the past few years. Since energy charges have decreased, the average residential bill in 2015 was $25 to $30 less than an average bill in 2014.
The co-op’s residential facilities charge increases by 90 cents, the first increase in 21 years, from $8.60 per month to $9.50 per month. The residential distribution charge, which has been the same for five years, will increase from 3.606 cents per kilowatt-hour 4.336 cents per kWh. Distribution service rates are invested in substations, poles, transformers, power lines, people, hardware and software, and buildings.
“For every improvement we make to our electric infrastructure or technology systems, for every line we replace or substation we upgrade, for every building, every line truck, every new line to every new neighborhood, there is a cost. Those costs are reflected on our customer-members’ bills and they are an investment in the electric system that brings power to every home in Southern Maryland every day,” Austin J. Slater, Jr., SMECO president and CEO, said. “We plan, we prepare, we design and construct, we repair, we respond, and we work 24/7 to fulfill our mission to be responsive, reliable, and resourceful. The power you can count on.”
Slater continued, “Our rates reflect the price we pay to provide a high level of electric service reliability. In the past six years, SMECO has invested more than $377 million in infrastructure, including the Southern Maryland Reliability Project, which was completed in November 2014 at a cost of $108 million. Our goal is to maintain the highest standard of reliable service for our customer-members.”
To learn more about SMECO, visit their Leader Member Page.
