Manager's Message

Electricity is something we often take for granted—until we experience a power outage or see a spike in our energy bills. It powers our homes, businesses, and daily routines in ways we rarely stop to consider. At Central Electric, we understand just how essential reliable electricity is to our members, and we are committed to ensuring that your power remains both dependable and affordable.

A Changing Landscape

We work hard to provide the most reliable service possible, restore it as quickly as possible if it goes out, and control costs for our members. However, external factors sometimes make maintaining affordability more challenging. Over the last decade, market and policy forces have introduced changes that require utilities to lower the carbon intensity of generating resources, primarily through the retirement of coal plants and increase of renewable energy resources. 

We have engaged in numerous conversations with our members over the past few years about the impacts of these changes, and the need for balanced, reliable, and affordable energy policies. We believe this balance can be achieved and will continue to advocate on behalf our members at the state and federal levels for responsible energy policies. 

One of the most concerning trends has been the rapid transition away from dependable, cost-effective power generation sources. As older, more affordable baseload generation sources are being decommissioned faster than new sources can replace them, the cost to generate electricity has inevitably increased while reliability has decreased. 

While solar and renewable energy can be an excellent complement to our energy mix, which we are very supportive of, these resources are highly weather dependent and therefore not always available when we need them most, like times of high demand. Working with the network of cooperatives in North Carolina, we are pursuing solutions to pair these resources with battery storage to increase grid resilience. However, battery storage needs to come down in price before it can be widely adopted. 

Rising Costs

While the changes from market and policy forces are driving up prices for electric generation and transmission, we are also facing steep price increases for the materials we use to maintain our grid and serve you - from transformers, to wire to crossarms, many components of the system have doubled in price. Unfortunately, the financial impact of these changes is now being felt by electric cooperatives and their members across the country. The cost of producing power has risen at a rapid rate, and we can no longer absorb these costs without making adjustments.

It is never our desire to bring news of rate increases to our membership, but in order to continue meeting your energy needs and providing the reliable service you expect, an adjustment of 7% to residential kWh rates will need to be put into place effective April 1. A $3 basic facility charge adjustment will also go into effect changing from $31 to $34 each month. 

These increases are necessary due to the rapidly increasing cost of wholesale power production, costs handed down through the wholesale power exchange, and are necessary to ensure the long-term financial stability of our cooperative while maintaining the level of service you deserve. These adjustments are an unfortunate repercussion of policies and decisions that have impacted the ability to generate electricity at a lower cost. 

Our Commitment

We remain committed to keeping your power costs as affordable as possible while adapting to the evolving energy landscape. As a not-for-profit utility, every dollar we collect goes directly into maintaining and improving the service we provide. Despite these necessary adjustments, we will continue working tirelessly to deliver the safe, reliable, and affordable electricity that our members have come to depend on.

Between now and April, we will provide more information on these adjustments and how they will impact your bill. If you have any questions or concerns, we encourage you to reach out to us. Thank you for your continued trust in Central Electric as we navigate these industry-wide challenges together.

Until next time,