Early this year the Arrowhead Cooperative board patted itself on the back for not raising either the kWh charge for electric usage or the fixed monthly service fee for 2014. Arrowhead also claimed that their power supplier, Great River Energy, would not be raising the wholesale electric rate Arrowhead would pay for power.
The March Arrowhead Cooperative newsletter proclaimed that, despite this winter’s increased wholesale cost of power generation for Great River Energy, “Our provider, GRE, will burden this volatile cost allowing the end customer, our members, to pay a consistent and stable price for electricity.”
Apparently not.
Using an insidious tool called the “Power Cost Adjustment” Arrowhead Cooperative increased customer kWH charge by 18 percent on the billing statement for the power used in March of this year. There was an increase of 6 percent for April and 5 percent for May. Even while making claims for no price increases, they had added a 3 percent PCA surcharge for electric use in January.
Though claiming a fixed kWh rate for the year, Arrowhead actually charges what amounts to a variable rate. The additional 18 percent PCA kWh charge for March was comparable to you ordering a $6.95 burger off a restaurant menu, but finding that the waitress has added $1.25 to your bill because the cost of hamburger went up while the kitchen prepared your order.
And of course, you’ll pay additional state and county taxes on the surcharge. Just like that burger, you can hardly send back the electricity you had already consumed and thought you would purchase at the price quoted.
Arrowhead customers know they will eventually pay for any increased costs in some way or another, so why does our cooperative claim to assure a “consistent and stable price” and disguise the truth with the “Power Cost Adjustment” charge?
Wouldn’t it be nice to know what your cost for electricity might be before you flipped that switch?
Perhaps Arrowhead is throwing a few “switches” of its own.
Bob LaMettry
Grand Marais
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