Business ProfileforHILCO Electric Cooperative, Inc.

I've lived at ************************************************************************************ for over 4 years and have never seen my electric bill at $833.00 i believe they increase the rates because we have no other alternative on any other Electric company. I believe they take any opportunity of any cold weather to **** up the customers bill because they know we don't have any other option but to pay it. They also make it very difficult to make payment arrangements, we only have 1 per year. They are not understanding at all and are actually just down right rude to the customers. i was told i should of been looking at churches and salvation army for assistance, i had no idea there were services that assisted people. My bill has never been more than $450.00, they offered to come and read my meter but would charge me $150.00 plus $45.00 non refundable fee for them to come check the meter. I am extremely careful with our electric usage because we live on a tight budget. I don't believe this bill is correct and they are taking advantage of the residents in ******* ***** because we don't have any other options on electric company and they know we can't go anywhere else. It is very frustrating not having an option on electric companies because you don't have a voice or a say so to argue what they charge you. you just get the bill, pay it and deal with it.

We know that our members experienced higher electric bills for the period that included the extreme winter weather during January 14 17, 2024. The average temperature for those days was 20?, which resulted in increased usage to meet heating demand. During extreme weather, HVAC units work harder and run longer, which contributes greatly to the increase in kWh usage. It appears this was the case at your location. When comparing the recent February bill with your February bill from last year, your usage was greater this year by 83%. Many times, in extremely cold weather, HVAC systems will switch to emergency heat to try to keep the house at the temperature set on the thermostat. We are not privy to your individual usage patterns, but we know that extreme weather is a significant factor in the increased usage of all our members. HILCO does not arbitrarily change pricing when the weather is extreme. HILCO must pay for the power to service its members at the price that is charged by its wholesale supplier and dictated by market conditions. In fact, HILCO's base kWh energy charge has not changed since the 1990's. The only energy charge that fluctuates is the power cost recovery factor (PCRF), which is designed to collect the necessary funds to pay excess monthly wholesale power cost that is not met by the base energy charge, regardless of what that is. This charge actually decreased for the February 2024 bill. It was $0.067049 per kWh in January, $0.065536 in December 2022, $0.065477 per kWh in November, and $0.064833 per kWh in October 2022. It was $0.063549 per kWh in February 2024. Regarding deferred payment options, we offer 2 deferred payment plans to all members during a rolling 12-month period. If a member requests additional deferred payment plans, those may be offered if approved by a supervisor. If a member feels that their meter is not reading correctly, the first step in determining if something is wrong with the meter is participating in a live reading. You may contact our office while you are able to look at the meter and ask that we send a message to the meter asking for the current reading. We provide you with that reading.If the readings match, the meter is reading correctly. If they do not match, we will send someone out to exchange the meter and send it to an outside contractor for testing. We do not charge for that service if our readings are different from what you see during the live reading. If, however, the readings match and you request that that the meter be tested, a fee is charged if the meter is determined to be accurate. While there is a possibility that a meter is reading incorrectly, this is a rare occurrence. We know that the increased prices have placed a financial burden on many of our members. We understand that this is causing hardship for many. But HILCO must collect these funds to pay the wholesale power bill to ensure continuous power to our members. We are hopeful that power cost will decrease in the near future. Our goal is to serve all members as consistently and efficiently as possible, while ensuring the financial stability of the Cooperative. Thank you for being a HILCO member. We look forward to serving your electric service needs and are willing to answer any questions you have.