2023 RATE INCREASE

Beginning with bills mailed after July 7, 2023, there will be an increase in our Distribution Base Charge and Distribution Energy Charge. The Distribution Base Charge will increase from $40 to $42 for residential members. The Distribution Energy Charge will increase from $0.0535 to $0.05671 per kilowatt-hour.

Co-op members have the certainty that rates increase when the true cost of delivering electricity increases – never to generate profits for outside investors. A rate increase was necessary to offset the continually rising costs of materials, labor, and other expenses.

Butler Rural Electric Cooperative takes rate decisions seriously. We know rate changes affect members in a very personal way. The cooperative is committed to making sure we maintain reliable electric service and are responsive to members’ needs. We work hard to keep your bill as low as possible and to maintain a system that will provide you with the electricity you need when you need it, now and in the future.

Rate increase information

Due to multiple years of inflationary pressure on material and labor costs, the cooperative will implement our first distribution rate increase in six years. Cooperative employees have controlled costs during this time, allowing us to delay an increase that was originally forecasted in 2019.

With the rate increase going into effect for all bills mailed after July 7, the new rates will be applied energy use beginning July 1. Bills with our new rates will be calculated August 3.

The rate changes on the distribution components of the bill are forecasted to result in an average increase of 2.7% for residential members, or a $6.49 increase per month. Butler Rural Electric Cooperative’s Board of Trustees and management staff did not take this decision lightly, but after conducting cost of service studies and looking ahead for continued reliability, a rate increase was deemed necessary to maintain the power and reliability our members expect. Thankfully, these changes are significantly lower than what members have heard reported by some of our neighboring utilities in the past 18 months.

Distribution Base Charge

Beginning with bills mailed after July 7, 2023, the Distribution Base Charge will increase from $40 to $42 for residential members.

The Distribution Base Charge is the component of the bill that covers upkeep of our electric system, such as lines, poles, meters, and substations. It covers everything it takes to bring electricity to your home and is influenced by the operating costs of Butler Rural Electric Cooperative. On average, this is the smallest portion of the bill.

Regardless of how much electricity a home uses, the cost of delivering power to that home is the same. Even if there is no electric use, it still costs the cooperative to have facilities in place to deliver electricity to each home in our service territory. As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, the operational costs are spread fairly and equally across all of our members, regardless of electricity use. That is why every member pays the Distribution Base Charge

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Rising equipment costs

The cost of goods needed to deliver electricity has risen over the last six years. Our last rate increase was in 2017, so you can see the direct price increases from that time to now.