DEC Charges & Board Member Election
We at Douglas Electric Cooperative (DEC) want our members to have a clear understanding of how they are charged for electricity. As a cooperative, our rates are designed to only recover the actual cost of serving every DEC member.
Our charges include:
- Kilowatt-hour (kWh). This charge is based on the amount of kilowatt-hours members use. It recovers the co-op’s cost to buy power from wholesale suppliers, such as Bonneville Power Administration.
- Monthly basic. This fixed charge recovers the cost of providing service and includes the wire, substations and poles needed to provide power before a single light is turned on.
Members are billed based on their electricity use and pay a residential basic charge to cover the cost of providing electricity. The basic charge is comparable to a fixed expense with other businesses, such as rent, mortgage or car payments. DEC takes care of maintaining power lines, handling billing and payments, covering operating costs, and making sure energy is available.
In 1938, DEC began bringing electric power to underserved rural areas of Douglas County. We have an average of about 6 members per mile of line, which is much less than the large investor-owned utility in Roseburg. No for-profit electric company wanted to serve our rural areas, so DEC stepped in to supply affordable power to our community.
Your Douglas Electric team works hard to keep your electricity rates as low as possible while safely providing reliable service to all cooperative members. If you have any questions, I’d love to chat with you at our annual meeting on Saturday, April 5. Or feel free to give me a call, and we can talk about our cooperation.
Our directors in District 1 (Terry Nelson) and District 2 (Evan Barnes) are running unopposed this year at our annual meeting. Instead of receiving a ballot with your March edition of Ruralite, ballots will be available at the annual meeting and at our member services counter at our headquarters in Roseburg. If you would like us to mail a ballot to you, call us at (541) 673-6616.
Sincerely,
General Manager Keith Brooks