Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative announces rate drop for customers

    Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative (EMEC) announced at its annual meeting July 31 that the Cooperative’s members will receive another drop in overall electric rates, beginning with their August bills.  An energy credit line item worth more than half a penny per kiloWatt-hour will appear in the delivery section of the EMEC bills for about six months.  For a family using 600 kWhs per month, the total savings will be approximately $3.26 per month.
    This will be the second decrease in overall electric costs for EMEC members this year. Saturday’s announcement of the energy credit follows an April drop in the Standard Offer supply rate to EMEC members of approximately 1.796 ¢/kWh.  Beginning with electricity used on or after April 1, EMEC members began purchasing power from New Brunswick Power Generation Corporation (NB Power) at a rate of 7.354 ¢/kWh, down from 9.15 ¢/kWh for energy used before that date.  
    EMEC’s Chief Executive Officer, Scott Hallowell, said Saturday that the energy credit is the result of an arrangement negotiated by the Cooperative under the previous Standard Offer contract in early 2008.   Initially, the lowest bid price accepted for that older contract was 9.402 ¢ /kWh. The Cooperative then negotiated an arrangement that resulted in cost reductions for the supplier, and those cost reductions were passed on to EMEC members. This lowered the contract from 9.402 ¢/kWh to 9.15 cents.
    “In addition to the initial rate reduction,” Hallowell said at Saturday’s meeting, “there was also a provision which would provide for the possibility to accumulate additional savings, based on certain conditions.”  It is these savings that will be distributed to EMEC’s members under the energy credit for approximately six months starting in August.  
    The announcement was made as part of the CEO’s report at Eastern Maine Electric’s Annual Meeting, held this year at Katahdin Elementary School in Stacyville.  EMEC Board President R. Scott Skinner and Board Secretary Wallace Lindahl reported to the members on recent progress at the Cooperative. The meeting, which included a live musical performance and a meal of barbecued chicken and side dishes, was attended by over 350 people from Washington, Penobscot, and Aroostook Counties.  EMEC is a not-for-profit, consumer-owned utility serving 3,000 square miles of territory in parts of those three counties.