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GUC Announces Electric Rate Decrease
Greenville Utilities Board of Commissioners approved an electric rate decrease at its meeting November 21, 2006. The decrease will be effective January 1, 2007.  

“We are very pleased to announce a decrease for our customers,” said Bryant Kittrell, GUC Board Chair. “During my eight-year tenure on the Board, this is the first time we have been able to decrease rates, and personally I am delighted.”  

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction.” said Ron Elks, GUC’s General Manager/CEO. “We purchase electricity on behalf of our customers from the North Carolina Eastern Municipal Power Agency. The Power Agency has reduced our wholesale cost of power, and we are passing those savings on to our customers. For the past few years, the cost of wholesale power has gone up. This decrease, while modest, is  welcome news.”  

As a result of the decrease, GUC’s residential electric customers (with load management) using 1,000 kWh will be paying $98.91on their monthly utility bills for December through March. Without the decrease, they would be paying $100.12 for that amount of electricity.  

Those same customers will pay $109.48 for 1,000 kWh on bills for April through November. At the current rate, they would pay $110.69.  

“Essentially, we are tracking our costs right through to the customers,” said Elks. “The same principle is applied when we have a wholesale increase. With an increase, we change our retail pricing only enough to recover the increased costs. We don’t keep any of the additional money. We also don’t pass on every increase automatically. GUC first tries to absorb as much as possible. Since 2002, our wholesale costs have increased 21%, and we have absorbed $3.3 million. That’s over $3 million we’ve saved our customers in potential cost increases.” 

GUC has offset past increases through cost-saving measures such as Beat-the-Peak, industrial generation, use of a rate stabilization fund, and other cost-containment measures.  

“When we simply cannot absorb an increase, we must pass it on to our customers,” said Elks. “In this case, our wholesale costs are decreasing. Rather than ‘absorbing’ the savings, we are passing them on to our customers.”  

According to Ken Raber, Senior Vice President for the N.C. Eastern Municipal Power Agency, the wholesale rate was decreased because the Power Agency had a good operating experience last year. “Reserve levels were acceptable for the agency to have stability and financial flexibility to absorb small changes in the marketplace,” he said. “We see the rate remaining stable through 2010 pending any unforeseen changes in the marketplace or any significant changes in operations that affect our power plants.”