We recently held our Annual Meeting on April 12 at Freeport High School. It was a beautiful day, and we appreciate the large crowd of members who joined us that morning.

At the meeting, I shared several updates on the co-op, including the news of a necessary rate increase. You may have seen this announcement in the local news, so I’d like to use this month’s newsletter to fill you in on all the details.

In my March column, I outlined our year-long cost-of-service study with an independent rate consultant. Since then, our consultant has submitted a final recommendation: a moderate rate adjustment to help manage the rising costs of providing reliable electric service.

What to Expect
For residential members, the Basic Service Charge will increase by $6—from $29 to $35 per month. Additionally, the Distribution Delivery Charge will increase slightly, and the Distribution Cost Adjustment (DCA) will be eliminated.

For the average residential member—using approximately 1,100 kilowatt-hours per month—the total increase will be about $8.08 per month, or roughly 5.1%. Actual impact will vary based on your individual energy use. You’ll see this change reflected in your May 2025 bill.

What These Charges Mean
The Basic Service charge covers the fixed costs of delivering electric service, regardless of how much power you use. Some co-ops refer to it as an “availability charge.” It pays for infrastructure like poles, lines, transformers, and meters—critical components that keep your power flowing and available 24/7/365.

The Distribution Delivery charge is a usage-based, per-kilowatt-hour charge, grouped with the Energy Charge and Purchased Power on your bill. Like the Basic Service Charge, it helps cover CHELCO’s costs to deliver electricity, but it varies with your monthly usage. The new rate is $0.02210 per kilowatt-hour, and the previous Distribution Cost Adjustment of $0.003272 has been eliminated.

Why is an Increase Necessary?
Since 2013, inflation has risen nearly 40%. Meanwhile, rapid growth in our service area has placed greater demands on our system, and cost increases for essential materials and equipment have far outpaced general inflation. This distribution rate adjustment ensures that current co-op members are paying their fair share of costs being incurred to operate the system now and into the future.

CHELCO’s Financial Position

You may recall that last year’s moderate distribution rate increase of around 3.5% for the average residential member was the first at CHELCO since 2013. In fact, we implemented two distribution rate decreases in that span—one in 2015 and another in 2021. Even with this rate increase, CHELCO’s rates will still rank among the most affordable of co-ops in Florida and Alabama. Recent data also shows that CHELCO ranks in the top 3% of U.S. electric cooperatives at controlling costs. CHELCO remains in an excellent financial position, and I’d like to commend all of our employees for their efforts at controlling costs across the board.

Reliability Remains a Top Priority

We have a commitment to our members to provide reliable service. Despite the steep increases in equipment and material costs that I mentioned earlier, we continue to make investments in reliability upgrades to ensure we are fulfilling our mission.

Over the past 20 years, our reliability has steadily improved, and we’re determined to keep that trend going and strive for even greater reliability.

CHELCO Offers Tools to Help Manage Usage
At CHELCO, we strive to not only be your electric service provider but also your first stop when it comes to advice, tools and resources to manage your energy usage. Our Energy Services team is comprised of experts to help you make informed decisions on your home and its energy efficiency. Whether you’d like to schedule an energy audit at your home or business or simply talk about ways you can reduce your energy consumption, please contact (850) 307-1122 or send an email to energyservices@chelco.com. 

If you prefer a more independent route, our Residential Energy Calculator is available at                                                  CHELCO.com for residential members. By inputting information about your home, the calculator will provide in-depth feedback on how much you could save by making certain energy efficiency upgrades.

One way we are striving to improve our own efficiency is through our Paperless Billing campaign. With the increasing postal costs, we encourage our members to consider paperless billing as an option, and we’re even offering a $10 bill credit to sign up. Learn more on page 4.

What’s Next for CHELCO?
As a not-for-profit electric cooperative, CHELCO will continue to operate with a focus on serving our members, not earning a profit for stockholders. We will also continue striving to be a well-rounded organization, balancing financial responsibility with our goal to provide affordable and reliable service to our members, all while prioritizing safety first.

Through our focus on cost control, we aim to remain among the most affordable electric cooperatives in the U.S. In the coming weeks, months and years, we will continue to do what we’ve always done: put the interests of our members first.

I appreciate your membership with our cooperative. As the school year begins to wind down and the weather continues to grow warmer, I hope that you and your family have a safe and memorable summer. In the meantime, if you ever need us for anything, we’re always just a visit, click or call away.

As always, Proud to be CHELCO.