Which rate is right for you? Find the rate that fits your household
By Riley Morningstar
OVER THE LAST few years, Blue Ridge Electric Cooperative has worked to offer more residential rate options that best suit your household.
We hear from members all year, and one thing comes up often — the rate that works for your neighbor may not work for you. The three-part EmPOWERment rate fits most households well, but it doesn't work for everyone. So, we asked our rate consultants to help us develop rate options to give you more choices.
Each of these rates is revenue-neutral for the cooperative. Blue Ridge is a not-for-profit utility, and any positive margins flow back to members in the form of capital credits. We have proudly returned more than $32 million to our membership over the last 42 years.
TIME OF USE
Time of Use is our newest rate option. Power costs less when the grid isn’t working hard, and this rate passes
that difference straight to you. For the majority of the day, energy is priced well below our standard rate. During a short peak window, it costs considerably more. There is no demand charge. You pay for what you use when you use it. The peak windows are fixed and predictable — late afternoon in the warmer months, early morning in the colder months, seven days a week. Those windows aren’t set by Blue Ridge. They’re set by the generators who supply our power, and they mark the hours when the regional grid is under the most strain.
EMPOWERMENT
EmPOWERment remains the rate most of our members save money on,
and it’s the one that most closely mirrors how Blue Ridge itself is billed. It has three parts: an account charge covering the daily cost of keeping power available to your home, a discounted energy charge for what you actually use, and a peak charge tied to your single highest hour of use during the peak window in a billing period. Our power suppliers don’t bill us for total energy alone. They bill us for our peak demand, because the system must be built to meet that strain. EmPOWERment reflects that reality instead of averaging it into everyone’s rate. A member who spreads usage out isn’t subsidizing a member who doesn’t.
FLAT USE (TWO-PART)
Flat Use is for members who prefer not to watch
the clock. One monthly account charge, one price per kilowatt-hour, no peak window, no demand charge. Every kilowatt-hour costs the same whether you use it at two in the afternoon or two in the morning.
ABOUT THE ACCCOUNT CHARGE
A common question our co-op receives is one you may already understand — What exactly is my account charge for?
This is a fixed monthly fee to provide an active connection to the power grid, while also having power lines, poles and
transformers ready to deliver power to your home. An apples-to-apples comparison would be the line access fee you pay your cell phone provider.
HOW TO COMPARE
Take time to see which rate suits your household before you switch, and you will not need a calculator to do it. Log in at broem.ariespro.com for a full analysis built on your own usage history. If you would rather have someone walk you through it, call us at (800) 240-3400.
HOW TO CHANGE
To move to a different rate, you need a zero balance on your account or enrollment in a cooperativeapproved repayment program. You will also talk with one of our energy consultants about ways to make your home more efficient, and you will stay on the new rate for a full year before you have the option to switch again.
Our co-op is ready to help you. Just reach out.