Ozark Electric Co-op members question ‘demand charge’ - KY3
Ozark Electric Co-op members question ‘demand charge’
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (KY3) - The Ozark Electric Cooperative hosted the first of several public meetings Monday night to connect with members.
This follows an On Your Side Investigation into Ozark Electric Co-op’s “demand charge.”
Most of the people at the meeting weren’t happy about the “demand charge” on their power bills.
The question and answer session at Willard High School got heated at times.
Dozens of people showed up. Some even wore “No Demand” t-shirts.
This new charge affects more than 30,000 customers. The co-op will charge members if they have multiple appliances running at the same time.
Members are encouraging each other to vote for new directors on July 26.
“With this new demand charge on top of our usage charge, if I use 30 kilowatt hours of power, there’s this other charge that sneaks in and there are individuals whose bill has doubled,” said Scott Mahaffey, a co-op member who’s running for a seat on the board.
“We could look at increasing that base rate so that simple kilowatt per hour rate, that’s an easy solution. Another one that’s a little interesting is called time of use, that actually follows what the actual energy does throughout the course of the day,” said Kolby Kallweit, a co-op member who is also running for a seat on the board.
Representatives from Ozark Electric Cooperative spoke with On Your Side back in April.
They said charging more during peak hours isn’t fair to members who work non-conventional hours.
They say supply costs are up, and that the “demand charge” is a fair approach for members.
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