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City reviewing electric tariffs

Churches say it will create undue burden

Eric Cravey
Posted 6/22/16

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The City of Green Cove Springs and its electric utility are reviewing customers’ previous bills in hopes of rectifying possible bill calculation errors from the …

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City reviewing electric tariffs

Churches say it will create undue burden


Posted

GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The City of Green Cove Springs and its electric utility are reviewing customers’ previous bills in hopes of rectifying possible bill calculation errors from the past.

However, the decision on whether to shift some customers from being non-demand to demand customers met some opposition at the June 21 city council meeting. A number of faith leaders addressed city council saying the proposed change would create a financial burden.

“We are looking at an increase of over double, if your numbers are correct, about what we will be charged for the use of our electricity from here on out. We exist not for ourselves. We exist for what goes on outside of the walls of our church,” said Mark Hults, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Green Cove Springs.

Hults joined six other church officials and members who approached city council about letters they received in April that explained how their bills had been reviewed. The letter explained how the city utility wanted to ensure customers were in the correct rate classification and gave projections of what they would pay if re-classified as demand customers.

City Manager Danielle Judd said the tariff is not new as it has also been part of the city’s – as well as other power companies’ – rate structures for years. Demand billing classifications help power companies fund the peak times when the system is strained by multiple, high users at one time.

“A utility company, if you’re providing water or electric, has to be able to provide that service when the umpf hits. So, when you have either churches, another example would be ballfields, football fields – the lights that go on at fields are extremely high users of power – and they come on for a really umpf period of time and then they subside again. But when you hit those high peaks is when you’ll be classified as a demand account,” Judd said.

Judd also said the letter offered to meet with its recipients and review their bills, however, only three recipients had sat down with city officials. She also said, in the end of all of the bill reviewing, it’s possible that not every entity that received a letter would be moved into the demand customer classification.

The city used 25 kilowatts as its yardstick to determine demand versus non-demand customers. Customers who exceeded 25 kw three times in a 12-month period, under the current city guidelines, are considered demand customers.

“It’s because you’ve exceeded the 25 kilowatt break that’s in our rates and you did it at least three times during a 12-month period – it doesn’t have to be consecutive, it can be different times throughout the [year]. And that’s what’s in our tariff,” Judd said.

Hults and others said such a change in billing could force churches to cut back on programs that help the less fortunate, such as donating to food pantries and, ironically, helping residents pay their own power bills.

“It potentially could cost the things that we have to support and other things that are going on are outside of our church and we just want you to consider either exempting the churches or reducing this rate. An increase of over 100 percent is really hard on everybody,” Hults said.

Pastor Christian Pope of Springs Baptist Church said since he has been at the church the last 15 months, he has been on a mission to make the former Orange Avenue Baptist Church more energy efficient in hopes of lowering bills.

“We’ve put timers on bathrooms. We have converted our entire sanctuary to LED bulbs. We have turned off the hot water to one of our buildings completely. We have put a timer on the fellowship hall, so it’s only heating up at times we need it. We have put coverings on the windows in order to try and reduce the heat that comes in from the windows. We have unplugged our water fountains – there’s no cooling water while we’re not there,” Pope said.

Pope may be on the right path, according to City Manager Danielle Judd, who brought up a program called PACE, Property Assessed Clean Energy, that the city entered into last year. PACE allows commercial and residential property owners to purchase, upgrade and install energy efficient systems, such as heating and air conditioning, using low cost loans. The loans are paid back by being tacked on to a property’s tax bill. It’s a program Council Member Mitch Timberlake also suggests, if property owners used it, would be much like forming a partnership with the city.

“I think that’s a part of us working together to solve the problem. I know in my own home, we replaced an air conditioning unit and, I’m not an electrician, but I know when they put one 85-amp breaker back in when they took out two, that I was going to see a reduction in my bill and it was a huge reduction,” Timberlake said.

Council member Steven Kelley, owner of Spring Park Coffee, said his shop received one of the 13 letters but his case is different from that of a church.

“It’s one of those things we realize that we do use a lot of energy and everything up there with the refrigeration and what not and there’s ways that we can set that through business and things. I’m a little bit sensitive to it, but at the same time too, in our scenario, it’s a little bit more reasonable than I’ve seen in some of these other scenarios,” Kelley said.

Council members indicated they would support a move to exempt churches from being named demand customers, but any such change would require a new city ordinance that would modify the city’s current rate-tariff structure. Judd said any modification requires the city to notify the Florida Public Service Commission, which would then review the modification. If an exemption is approved city council, the ordinance would have to go through all of the normal procedures of passing an ordinance, such as advertising and public hearings with the whole process taking up to three months.