March 19, 2024

SMECO Wants to Reduce Rates

Meeting

The electric company that serves most of Southern Maryland has filed with the Maryland Public Service Commission to reduce rates, or base energy charges. Southern Maryland Electric Cooperative has requested permission to reduce its rates by more than 10 percent for residential customers. If the request is approved, the lower rates would go into effect this summer and be seen on the August 2017 bills.

SMECO President and CEO Austin J. Slater Jr. said the new rate would mean SMECO’s residential base rate for August would be the lowest it has been for 12 years.

“Base rates for all customers … will be reduced across the board,” Mr. Slater said. He said the base rate for an average residential customer that normally records 1,300 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of monthly usage will be nearly $9 less in August than in July.

The co-op’s Standard Offer Service (SOS) rate is made up of the energy charge and the Power Cost Adjustment (PCA). On SMECO’s monthly electric bills, lower power supply costs have consistently been reflected in the PCA. This has led to a credit for 30 of the last 34 months.

“We work diligently to manage SMECO’s power portfolio. We purchase energy using a combination of long-term and short-term contracts, as well as base load and peak load contracts. Lower rates can make a huge impact, especially on facilities that use a lot of energy,” Mr. Slater said. “When SMECO reduces energy costs, those savings are passed on to customers — that’s the value of a cooperative.”

Base residential energy charges for summer will decrease by 8.76 percent, from 7.53 cents per kWh to 6.87 cents per kWh. Summer energy charges appear on bills sent out May through September. Base residential winter energy charges will be reduced from 8.13 cents per kWh to7.2 cents per kWh, an 11.44 percent reduction. The reductions for winter and summer months combined total about 10 percent on average.

The PCA, which changes monthly, is a credit of 0.4727 cents per kWh for June. The combination of the base energy charge and the PCA credit effectively reduces the SOS rate from 7.53 cents per kWh to 7.0573 cents per kWh.

As a cooperative, SMECO will always put its members first and be responsive, reliable, and resourceful — the power you can count on.

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To learn more about SMECO, visit its Leader member page.

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