Citizens Electric has not raised its base residential rate since May 2015 – almost 8 years! Unfortunately, increasing wholesale power costs from Wabash Valley over the past several years require that we increase our retail rates. We have been able to delay this increase by controlling other expenses, but those expenses make up only 17¢ of every dollar you spend for electricity. With wholesale power costs making up 83¢ of every dollar spent on your power bill and Wabash projecting higher wholesale rates over the next few years, an increase in retail rates is inevitable.

The CEC board of directors approved an overall increase in rates for all member classes effective with the April 2023 usage that will appear on your May bill. The average residential member that consumes 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month will pay an additional $8.70, excluding taxes. This rate increase will help offset Wabash Valley’s increasing costs and will enable CEC to maintain the reliable delivery of power that our members expect.

The residential rate structure will not change, and the service availability charge remains the same at $29 which was set in May 2015. This charge is the same for all residential members regardless of monthly use as it includes the fixed charges of building and maintaining the electric infrastructure that serves all our members.

Citizens has been presenting members’ time-of-use and hourly peak demand on your bills for almost three years, and CEC still plans to implement this new rate structure later this year. Depending on a member’s hourly peak demand and how many kilowatt-hours they buy during on- and off-peak periods, a member could see their overall cost go down. There will be more information about this proposed rate structure in the coming months.

For more information about the new rates that will be effective April 1, go to our website at cecmo.com/rates.