SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative experienced a record attendance with 1,298 registered members at it's 68th Annual Meeting of Members held Tuesday, August 1st at the Little Chapel Church.  For those members who were unable to attend, this month's column will provide you with an update on what is happening with the business you own.

Your Cooperative accomplished a great deal in the year 2005 in order to provide electric service to new members and also increase the level of reliable service to all Cooperative Members.  These accomplishments included the installation of approximately 524 new services, 189 service upgrades, replacing approximately 30 miles of older distribution line, testing over 11,850 distribution poles and trimming trees in over 871 miles of distribution line.  Your Cooperative is also investing in the future of your Cooperative by deploying new technologies that include the new Automated Meter Reading (AMR) system and state of the art computer systems and software that will benefit all members by providing a higher level of service and increasing operating efficiencies.  In summary, your Cooperative has invested over $114 million dollars in the distribution facilities that provide your service and spends over $5.5 million dollars annually in operating and maintaining your distribution facilities.

Your Cooperative, like you, is also experiencing significant price increases in all forms of energy and raw materials.  One major reason for the rising costs of all forms of energy is the increased global competition for the world's limited natural resources.  Developing nations such as China and India, which are transitioning to an industrialized economy at a very rapid rate, are causing dramatic increases in the demand for these resources and the supply of these resources simply can't keep pace with the surge in demand. 

SouthEastern's power supplier, which is Southern Illinois Power Cooperative at Marion, has experienced these dramatic increases in the price of coal, carbon and natural gas that are used to generate your electricity.  In fact, the average cost of coal has increased 61% in the last three years and the cost of carbon has increased by 50% in the last three years.  In addition, the power purchased from other generating plants during peak periods has increased in price as well.  As a result, your Cooperative is experiencing significant increases in the cost of wholesale power.

Your Cooperative's Board of Trustees and management team have reviewed these cost increases and developed a plan to minimize the increases necessary to cover these increased costs.  This plan includes a 5.5% general rate increase that will not be implemented until January 1, 2007 which will be 23 months since the last rate increase.  In addition, your Cooperative will restructure all retail rates to reflect a change in our wholesale power rate structure.  This restructuring includes the implementation of a wholesale power cost adjustment charge that will allow your Cooperative to only pass along any incremental increases that are passed along from our power supplier.  This plan will allow your Cooperative to only collect what is needed in your rates to cover the necessary costs.

Your Cooperative knows and understands that no rate increase is desirable but given the significant global issues that are impacting your Cooperative's environment, we feel very fortunate to be a member of an electric cooperative that puts the member's interest first.  Your Cooperative does not operate like other utilities that strive to produce profits for investors.  Your Cooperative is here to provide you, as cooperative members and owners, with reliable energy solutions at rates that are just high enough to cover the necessary costs.  Your Cooperative is owned by the people it serves and will continue to be an electric cooperative that is truly operated "for the people and by the people."

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