Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative Bylaws
Tariff rules and regulations
Your OTEC Board of Directors is consistently working to keep your electric rates low, balancing recovery of the cooperative’s costs with safe, reliable electric service. As a cooperative, members are the owners of the business and elect a Board of Directors to represent the interest of the membership as a whole. One of the board’s primary purposes is to ensure fair and equitable recovery of costs for the service that is provided. The most recent tariff revision was April 16, 2019.
Rate Schedules
Why do I pay a basic customer charge each month?
OTEC collects its revenues for electric energy delivered to members in two forms: the energy charge and the basic delivery charge. The energy charge fluctuates based upon the amount of kilowatt hours (kWh) used. The monthly delivery charge is based on how many days the member is connected to the system for the billing period. OTEC is required to maintain power lines, bill and collect for services, pay for operating costs, and make energy available no matter how much or how little they use. This is similar to a fixed cost in another business – such as rent, mortgage or a car payment. It is this component of our cost that is being partially recovered by the delivery charge. A small portion of the cost is included in the energy component of our current rates.
With the high probability of restructuring coming to the electric utility industry, it is possible that fixed cost recovery (delivery) charges will increase and the energy charge (kWh) will decrease to reflect only the cost of purchasing electric energy in the market. This will be a substantial change from the historic method of setting rates in the utility industry.
Rates
| Type | Cost - EFFECTIVE NOVEMBER 1, 2017 |
|---|---|
| Residential | $29.50 per month |
| Small Commercial Large Commercial |
$45.00 per month $95.00 per month |
| Small Irrigation Large Irrigation |
$32.00 (Demand 17 kW or less) per month $47.00 (Demand greater than 17 kW) per month |
| Large Power (Industrial) | $300.00 per month |