We’ve written a lot in these pages about Kentucky having the
lowest average electric rates in the nation.
Well, new figures
from the U.S. Department of Energy also show that electric
cooperatives in Kentucky have the lowest rates compared with co-ops
in other states.
Writing about
average rates gets confusing because averages lump so many things
together. Average means some rates are higher, and some lower, than
that average figure. Rate averages also group together different
types of utilities, and different types of customers. But the
overall point made by these comparisons is that however you figure
it, Kentuckians have the best electric rates.
Since last spring
we’ve known that the average Kentuckian pays lower residential
electric rates than the average resident of any other state. The new
figures show that the average Kentucky electric co-op member pays
lower rates than the average electric co-op member in any other
state.
That proves that
electric co-ops are part of the reason Kentucky has the lowest
electric rates.
In some cases,
electric co-op rates may be higher than those of investor-owned or
publicly owned utilities. That’s because co-ops tend to serve
areas out in the country where there are fewer customers per mile of
line. But these new averages show that when you compare co-ops to
co-ops, Kentuckians still have the best rates in the nation.
An interesting
feature of these new figures is that they come from a final
Department of Energy report for the year 2000. That was actually
before the 2001 California energy crisis pushed rates higher in the
Pacific Northwest, giving Kentucky the best average rates. (The
figures showing Kentucky having the lowest rates come from more
recent, month-by-month preliminary estimates. The report with the
year 2000 figures provides more detail.)
If you want the
details of these new figures you can find them in Electric Sales
and Revenue 2000 by the DOE’s Energy Information
Administration. This DOE report can be found on the Internet at the Department
of Energy web site or just click
here to go directly to the web page.
Kentucky Association of
Electric Cooperatives, Inc.
4515 Bishop Lane * Louisville, KY 40218
502-451-2430 * FAX: 502-459-3209 Terms of Use
