2014 December Daviess-Martin Electric REMC

NEWS FROM YOUR COOPERATI www.dmremc.com CONTACT US

Daviess-Martin County REMC TOLL FREE

800-762-7362

GENERAL MANAGER

Ken Frye

OFFICE HOURS

7:30 a.m.– 4 p.m., Monday-Friday STREET ADDRESS

12628 E 75 N, Loogootee, IN 47553 MAILING ADDRESS

P.O. Box 430, Loogootee, IN 47553 SERVICE INTERRUPTIONS

To report an outage or emergency, call 812-295-4200 or 800-7627362 day or night.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Dean Harrawood, PRESIDENT John Edwards, VICE PRESIDENT August Bauer, SECRETARY Michael E. Arvin, TREASURER Terry Chapman Dale Marchino Steve Streepy BILL PAYMENT OPTIONS

Online bill payment Budget billing Auto bank draft Drive-through window Night depository Credit card payment (VISA, Discover and MasterCard accepted) Pay-by-phone MISSION STATEMENT

“Our mission is to provide dependable electricity and quality services for our members at reasonable cost.”

Like us on Facebook www.Facebook.com/Daviess MartinCountyREMC

TIP OF THE MONTH

Use timer on holiday lights

Be merry and bright, but don’t let your holiday lights shine all night. Save money on your electric bill by installing a light timer for your decked out home. It can help lower your electric bill and reduce energy consumption. Use a manual timer plugged into an electrical outlet to automatically turn lights on and off as scheduled.

— U.S. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

REMC to retire capital credits Once again, Daviess-Martin County REMC’s strong operational and financial condition will provide a gift to all members with a capital credit retirement this holiday season.

DMREMC’s board of KEN FRYE directors recently declared a capital credit retirement of $850,000 to members who purchased electricity from the cooperative from 1983 through 2013.

Electric cooperatives aren’t like other utilities — you, as a consumer and a member, own a portion of the business.

And one benefit of the membership involves the allocation of excess revenue, called margins, in the form of capital credits.

You and other members who receive electricity from us are the owners. Of course, being an owner doesn’t mean you can drive to a substation and take home a transformer or borrow a spool of wire.

Those assets are owned collectively by everyone who has signed up for electric service. A portion of the electric bill you pay each month, in fact, goes into building distribution infrastructure — poles, wires and substations — that brings you a steady supply of power.

Cooperatives follow a unique consumer-focused business model led by a set of seven principles. The third cooperative principle, “members’ economic participation,” requires all of us to chip in a bit on our monthly bill to keep DaviessMartin County REMC in good shape.

Your cooperative conducts business locally. Investments we make in infrastructure don’t profit someone in an area far away; benefits stay right here in our community.

Paying your monthly bill does more than build lines, buy equipment and purchase wholesale electricity. You also pay the salaries of our hard-working employees, who live right here in the community.

They, in turn, buy goods at local busi-

nesses, spreading income around and boosting our local economy.

Here’s another membership perk: you get money back. We’re not-for-profit, so any funds left over after the bills are paid go into a patronage capital account for each co-op member. Then, when your board of directors determines the co-op is in good financial shape, this capital is retired. How much money you get depends on how much electricity you used.

Patronage capital retirement is to you what dividends are to stockholders at forprofit companies. Only we don’t aim to make a profit. Our goal is to provide you with electricity at a price that is as close to cost as possible. That way, more of your money stays in your pocket — up front.

In short, you are receiving a vital resource, electricity, from a business owned and operated by you, your friends and neighbors. Working together, we provide you with the highest level of service CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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ELECTRIC CONSUMER • DECEMBER 2014 • ElectricConsumer.org

IVE CO-OP NEWS & NOTES Take note: Seasonal rate changes During the months of December, January and February, our co-op will change to its winter seasonal rate of 10.80 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Because of the higher demand on our system during summer and winter months, it costs more to generate or purchase electricity during those periods than it does during periods of low demand in spring and fall.

When demand is high, it sometimes becomes necessary to turn to more expensive sources of peak power or turn to the market to buy power at the times when everyone else is doing the same. Like any other product you buy, when demand is high, the price is higher; when demand is lower, the price is lower. It can be compared to buying an airline ticket during the high-demand vacation or holiday season.

The goal of the seasonal rate structure is to help keep energy costs down throughout our system by making the most efficient use of our electricity.

Reflected on bills received in February, members will see a change in the wholesale power tracker adjustment effective Jan. 1. Hoosier Energy has reduced the power tracker from $3.15 per 1,000 kWh used to $2.84 per 1,000 kWh used.

Rebate deadline approaches Each year Daviess-Martin County REMC offers members rebates designed to assist them in purchasing higher efficiency heating, cooling or water heating appliances and duct sealing. However, the program is re-evaluated each year and cannot be guaranteed to be in effect in the coming years. The deadline for the current rebate program is Dec. 31.

For more information visit our website, www. dmremc.com.

‘Win! Win! Win!’ Each month, Daviess-Martin County REMC asks our readers three questions to which the answers can be found in the articles of Electric Consumer. Follow these simple rules: 1.) Clip the coupon along the dotted line. 2.) Fill it out. 3.)

Return it to our office with your monthly payment before the 20th of the month. (Delinquent payments are not eligible.)

Each month a winner will be drawn from the entries submitted. Make sure you bring or mail in your most recent coupon, as the coupons are dated monthly. Members with automatic payment accounts will be entered in the contest as well. Copies will not be accepted, and coupons are not available at the office! Winners will be notified and their names published in the following monthly issue of Electric Consumer.

OCTOBER WINNER: Calvin Beasley, Odon

$50 MONTHLY DRAWING (FOR BILLS DATED DEC. 5; PAID BY DEC. 20)

1. _________________ lightbulbs are the easiest way to increase efficiency in your home.

2. Petitions of nomination for director election are due by _____________ ________ (month/day).

3. Cooperatives follow a unique consumerfocused business model led by a set of ________________________ principles.

NAME: __________________________________________________________________ ADDRESS: ______________________________________________________________ ACCOUNT NO.: _________________________________________________________ PHONE NO.: ____________________________________________________________

Happy Holidays from the board of directors and employees of

Daviess-Martin County REMC! The office will be closed Dec. 25, 26, and 31, and Jan. 1.

Give the gift of power!

This Christmas, wrap up an REMC gift certificate for a friend or neighbor.

For details, call the REMC at 812-295-4200.

ElectricConsumer.org • DECEMBER 2014 • ELECTRIC CONSUMER 5

Daviess-Martin County REMC News

Holiday season

SAVINGS & SAFETY

BY MEGHAAN EVANS

W

ondering what to buy for the person who has everything?

How about a gift for an environmentally friendly family member or friend? This holiday season, Daviess-Martin County REMC urges you to consider giving the gift of energy efficiency.

This doesn’t mean that you have to go out and replace your aunt’s refrigerator or your grandma’s washer and dryer — though you may be their favorite if you do. Giving the gift of energy efficiency can be as simple as filling their stockings, or creating a gift basket, with some of these helpful products.

LED lightbulbs are the easiest way to increase efficiency in your home. From indoor bulbs for your lamps, recessed lighting and hanging fixtures to outdoor lighting, such as flood lamps and even decorative lighting strands — there’s an LED bulb for everyone.

LED lighting used to be deemed as prohibitively expensive, but prices have gone down significantly in recent years. Here are some toprated options for energy-efficient lighting that makes everything bright! k GE Reveal 60 Watt Equivalent Bulb: Around $18 k Cree TW Series 60 Watt Equivalent Bulb: $9-$16 k Sylvania’s Ultra HD floodlight-style bulb: $22-$35 Water-saving showerheads are also a great gift option. On average, Americans consume over 3 billion gallons of water daily. Switching to a water-saving showerhead could save a family of three up to $631 per year in costs and could reduce water consumption by over 2,600 gallons per year. Lack of water pressure can be a concern when giving this gift, so here are a few examples of showerheads that save water, but not at the expense of water pressure. k Glacier Bay 1-Spray Hand Shower: Around $13 k The Delta 1-Spray Water-Saving Showerhead: Around $16 k The Delta Arias 5-Spray Showerhead: Around $37 Providing your family and friends with energy efficiency tips along with a gift is also a great option. For example, did you know that one of the best ways to save energy in your home is to turn off all of your electronic devices? Try a TrickleStar Motion Sensor Power Strip, which costs around $30.

Supplement your gift with caulking supplies or weather strips, and before you know it, you will have the perfect energy-saving gift! All of these products are available online and at hardware stores, so get to shopping. From all of us here at Daviess-Martin County REMC, have a happy, energy-efficient holiday! …

MEGHAAN EVANS writes on consumer and cooperative affairs for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, the Arlington, Va.-based service arm of the nation’s 900-plus consumer-owned, not-for-profit electric cooperatives.

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ELECTRIC CONSUMER • DECEMBER 2014 • ElectricConsumer.org

Preserving our cooperative’s service territory

I

ndiana’s electric cooperatives are engaged in a campaign to preserve our electric service territory.

This fight will bring us in front of the Indiana General Assembly for the second consecutive legislative session to make a case about why it is essential for the electric cooperative community to preserve our defined electric service territory.

Our campaign, aptly named service territory preservation (STP), aims to preserve service boundaries in which cooperatives have worked hard to invest and develop since the passage of the Rural Electrification Act in the 1930s. It has always been the mission of Indiana’s electric cooperatives to serve the underserved member and invest in the safe, affordable and reliable delivery of electric service to parts of the state that other utilities did not want to serve due to their inability to make a profit.

Current state law defines protected service territories with one glaring

exception. Following an annexation, a municipal electric provider can take service territory from cooperatives and investor-owned utilities with very little compensation and almost no warning.

Indiana’s electric cooperatives serve in 89 of Indiana’s 92 counties, but only serve approximately 20 percent of the state’s population. This means there are fewer members to cover infrastructure and generation costs when territories reduce in size.

Imagine the negative impact on cooperatives that lose large commercial and industrial users to municipals and, in turn, lose all of the revenue that comes with those customers.

Fewer members supporting the cooperative and a reduced territory means fewer members to cover costs. Over time this loss means not only higher electricity costs, but an erosion of the cooperative community the state’s

Director election timeline Director districts up for election k District II: Daviess County (Van Buren and Barr townships) k District V: Martin County (Perry and Center townships) k District VII: Lawrence County (Marion and Spice Valley

townships)

Incumbent directors whose terms expire k District II: Dean Harrawood k District V: Michael Arvin k District VII: John Edwards

Named incumbents’ intention to seek a seat on the board of directors will be announced in the February issue of Electric Consumer.

Petitions of nomination are due by Feb. 24.

Petition forms are available by calling or stopping by the REMC office.

Director candidates will be listed on the Official Notice of the Annual Meeting mailed to the membership as a separate enclosure to the March 2015 electric bill.

Candidate biographies will be published in the April issue of Electric Consumer and in the Annual Report.

Director election will be held at the annual meeting of the membership on April 9, 2015.

electric cooperatives have worked hard to build As we continue with this process, we will be encouraging you — the member-owner — to contact your local legislator to alert him/ her on the impact of this legislation on your family, your cooperative, and your community.

The state’s electric cooperatives will address this inequity once again during the 2015 Indiana legislative session. It is our goal to combat the continued “taking” of our territories and overwhelming negative financial burden being placed on Hoosier cooperative members. …

CAPITAL CREDITS | CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4

we can while striving to keep your electric bills affordable. And that’s the cooperative difference.

In December, all current members of Daviess-Martin County REMC, will receive capital credit retirements. The amount of each retirement is based on how much individual members paid the co-op for electric service from 1983 through 2013. Capital credit retirements over $30 will be received as a check; retirements less than $30 will be applied as a credit to the bill received in December.

Former members who completed paperwork and received a check last year will automatically receive a check. Former members who did not do so should contact the REMC office to obtain forms to claim their capital credit retirement.

It’s time for the members who helped build this electric cooperative to get the credit they deserve … through capital credits.

KEN FRYE is general manager of Daviess-Martin County REMC.

ElectricConsumer.org • DECEMBER 2014 • ELECTRIC CONSUMER 29