As most of you are already aware, SouthEastern is a not-for-profit electric cooperative owned by the people we serve.  We are committed to the local community and as a result of that commitment, our power supplier has invested over 240 million dollars to upgrade their generation facilities in order to burn locally mined coal in an environmentally responsible manner.

As a result of that financial investment, SouthEastern, which is one of the six distribution cooperative owners of the Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, has had to implement some rate increases.  Increasing rates is always a difficult decision for a not-for-profit entity and prior to taking that action, we investigated every area where the membership might be subsidizing or paying more than their fair share for certain cooperative activities.

One of the areas looked at was the cost of line extensions and with an average construction cost of over $20,000 per mile, we determined that some line extensions would never return the dollars invested in them and therefore were being subsidized out of the pockets of other members.

To alleviate that situation, we decided to shift the cost burden to those members who were actually requesting line extensions, some of those requests being in excess of one mile.

Although our complete area coverage policy is too lengthy to include in this article, basically SouthEastern will provide a line extension of up to 600 feet for any year-round, permanently occupied, immobile structure with an expected energy usage of 15,000 kilowatt-hours per year, provided the line to be constructed is immediately adjacent to and parallel with an all season road maintained by a township, county, state or federal agency.  If the line to be constructed is not adjacent to an agency maintained all season road, the Cooperative will only provide 300 feet of line extension.

In all cases the applicant must furnish the Cooperative with a suitable right-of-way properly cleared with written easements and pay a $5.00 membership fee if they are not already a member.

Should members require primary extensions in excess of the above mentioned perimeters, they will be required to pay $7.25 per foot for the differential between the base distance and the first 1,000 feet, and $2.00 per foot for any construction in excess of 1,000 feet.

The quoted prices apply to overhead construction only, but in most locations underground line extensions can be provided at additional cost.

The point of the above narrative is to alert our members who might be thinking about building a new home to the fact that there may be additional cost involved in providing electric service to secluded areas.  We encourage anyone who is thinking about building in an isolated area to contact our engineering department for a free cost estimate.  If necessary, a Cooperative employee will even meet with you at the proposed construction site and explain the various available options for electric service.

See you next month and as always, "We’ll keep the lights on for you."