ELECTRICITY IS STILL A GREAT VALUE!
By Marla Marshall, CFO
Inflation, right???!!! Miserable. Undeniable. Backbreaking Inflation.
As I am getting ready to cut a check for DSO’s new bucket truck, I shake my head at all the price increases I have seen here at work and at home.
To provide some context, here are just a few items that inflation has touched in the years 2019 to 2024: the cost of a gallon of milk went from $3.04 to $4.43 (up nearly 50%); the cost of a loaf of bread, $1.29 to $2.54 (almost double!); and the cost of a gallon of gas went up 20%, from $2.60 to $3.08.
The electric utility industry has experienced crazy price increases, too. The most used transformer (15 kVA) doubled in cost, going from $508 per transformer in 2019 to $1,015 this year. A small work truck purchased in 2019 was $149,000. In 2024, DSO paid $221,000 for the same size truck (a 50% increase).
But can you guess what hasn’t gone up in cost? The answer is the price of electricity. That’s right! It might be hard to believe, but the average price of a single kWh sold in 2019 by DSO was $0.16 (all charges, before taxes). The average price in 2024 was still $0.16! Of course, your individual rate may have gone up or down, but overall, DSO’s overall member price has remained constant. You can see this by checking out the data from the Energy Information Administration below (eia.gov).
So, you might be asking, “How can that be?” The answer is due in large part to DSO’s board, management, and staff working diligently to keep the costs down for our members. To be sure, we have seen cost increases on everything from materials, labor, and everything in between! But one of the most important things we do is use peak shaving strategies to manage wholesale costs we pay. DSO does this in the summer when the rates are highest for us. Over the past 10 years, we have deployed over 4 MW of alternative peaking generation (solar and diesel generation) to help avoid those high summer peaking costs. This has saved DSO and its members nearly $5 million in power costs. In addition, our members are an integral part of our peak shaving effort. When you decrease power use (or even shut off power) during peak times, DSO saves money on its wholesale power bill, which helps keep rates stable.
We will continue to do everything we can to keep power costs down, and we hope you will continue to help us.