Why do you shut off the power when it is cold outside?
Unpaid bills cost everyone
Lately, we have taken some heat for turning off power to residential meters during the winter months. We really don’t like turning anyone’s power off, but out of fairness to the membership, we have to do it.
It costs money to generate and distribute electricity. As a cooperative, members split the costs proportionately. If one member uses more electricity, he or she pays more. So what happens when members don’t pay their bills? The costs are absorbed by those who do pay their bills.
The policies and procedures this co-op has in place protect the membership. They exist to promote fairness.
A common misconception is that we turn off the power immediately. Here are the facts:
- Once a bill is issued, a member has 25 days to pay it. That’s a pretty good deal considering the product has already been consumed.
- If the bill is unpaid on day 26, a late fee is incurred. This is $2 on a bill up to $229. If the bill is more, the late fee increases incrementally based on a percentage.
- If still unpaid on day 42, the account is labeled delinquent. The member will receive a delinquent letter in the mail and a $5 fee is assessed.
- At day 49, a shut off notice is delivered to the residence telling the member exactly how much is owed and what day the power will be shut off if the balance is left unpaid. The member is charged $32 for this shut off notice.
- The electricity to that meter is shut off on day 57.
Sometimes the co-op never receives payment for service. Last year, GVEA wrote off a little more than $263,000 in unpaid bills – also known as bad debt – which is pretty comparable to previous years. If we had more lax procedures, that number would be far higher.
Divided among the membership, $263,000 works out to about $8 per member, per year. Think about it: that’s more than the average member contributes to the Good¢ents round up program each year ($6).
January Statistics
- 3,011 accounts went delinquent
- 1,827 shut off notices delivered
- 162 electric meters shut off
Why do you shut off the power when it is cold outside?,
when you say non profit that means if you start to make a profit you get a raise
and the guy that gets to drive the company truck home (that lives out of town)and take his kids to school and mcdonalds in the morning we pay for.
with the what 263,000 dollars what half a years pay for you and 12 years pay for me
wow
BETTY’s idea is terrible. If you set up a fund that people can get money from to pay their Elec bill….they will know they can get it and wont change their spending/saving habits to pay the bill. After one year of depending on the fund to pay/suppliment their bill, which will allow them to spend “their” money on hittin the club, buying smokes, or paying their cable/internet/cell phone bills, it will become expected. THEN we will have a bunch of cry babies that are boo whooing b/c someone cut their “free money” and they will actually have to grow up and live within their means. Im sure it would go to help a few honest families…but we all know someone that is abusing the system and this one would have everyone in town lined up with their hand out. Lets look at the people who cry that they cant afford their power bill….do they got cable/internet/cell phone/huge gas guzzler’s? I mean shoot GCI is costing me an arm and a leg!!! where is my GCI relief fund at?!…oh wait we only cry about the paying for the stuff we DONT like and enjoy in this town.
Additionally, the next 3 months we received a phone call from a different department noting that our bill was lower than previous ones, just in case we wanted to pay extra… They use your phone number just fine for these calls but cannot even leave one message regarding shutting off service. It is outrageous.
We were great customers but when we were moving and in transition for several months we really just overlooked our bill. When we realized we hadn’t paid it, we were 12 hours too late – and at -40 degrees that is all it took to do $35K worth of damage. I understand that I was remiss, but what was particularly awful was that MY CELL PHONE NUMBER was on the bill. When asked why they would not call the cell phone number they required (indicating it may be used to contact me) or even the realtors number posted on the obviously vacant house, the GVEA rep stated it would be “too hard” to call people. I was incensed! It is easier to send someone out to a vacant house to leave a note no one will see??
The best part is, insurance companies do not like to help with damage caused by purposeful utility shut offs.
This action may not be criminal, but it shows a distinct lack of respect and consideration.
It would be better just to take the money and not have a moderated forum.
Only companies that have the websites forums and Tv adds telling use how good they are, are the ones ripping people of like GVEA, Mining ,Oil companies & Native Corporations.
You people GVEA need some competition in this town and put a stop to the monopoly you guys have going.
I bet the people that work for GVEA get a huge disscount on their bill… Including the board of Regulatory Commision of Alaska….
GVEA employees are members just like you. And they pay the same rates, too.
when was the last time you shut off an employee or one of the board members, or are they simply compensated enough to cover the astronomical bills.
i feel for the person who has been out of work. i was in a similar situation for a good portion of this year, i did not receive public or energy assistance, but did what i could and made use of unemployment and the aid and kindness of good friends. most people who have families have a grocery budget of around $500, how can the fuel usage be more than the actual bill? Itis not possible for even 500 homes in the fnsb area to use $300,400 a month in GVEA FUEL, how is this being distributed among members, no matter what the dollar amount it is around a 115 10 145% added ratio. It was explained to me by a board member previously when the credit flipped into a charge many years ago. The explanation made no sense then either at a much lower rate.
gvea being the only provider rendures it a monopoly. there MUST be an alternative to the outrageous fuel consumption to run this plant.
There are alternatives to the high price of fuel – and we’re working on them. While they won’t help tomorrow, we’re working to restart the Healy Clean Coal Plant and truck natural gas to Fairbanks. If all goes well, it will take a couple of years, but the impact would be about a 10% reduction in rates.
i am a single mother, who struggles monthly to keep a roof over our heads and food on the table. when my elec bill is $100 and the fuel surcharge is $115, that is utter insanity, we sit in the dark, with blankets over us to conserve electricity and fuel, and no matter what we do the bill goes up up up. the billing cycle is a farce, there are three gvea bills produced around every 67-73 days, I have been a mailcarrier, and out of 500+ customers that get mail, 85% of those receive a “pink” envelope monthly, of all economic areas from the hills to a mobile home in the middle of north pole. I have heard and seen of people with bills in excess of $500 a month. I have switched to energy efficient light bulbs, have replaced the old tube tv’s with ONE energy efficient one. have bought energy saving appliances, dont have my garage over 49 degrees all winter. and yet my bill in my tiny apartment is between $100 and $290 a month. Perhaps Gvea should adapt the extra $1 a month concept. i have been shut off, and in the harshest of winter months, I have made the choice to have fuel or electricity, ironically cant utilize the fuel without the electric, so have had to enocounter the dangers of heating the main living areas with the stove on and a fan in front of it. This is insanity, we are always paying more more more, with short billing cycles and 90% of the interior “delinquent” 90% of the time. do we not see the problem here ?
Being a single mom is tough enough without the stress of high energy costs. It sounds like you’ve taken positive steps to lower your bill. Some of your comments are confusing though. According to our credit department, bills are calcuated on an average of 30 days. You can see how many days were in the billing cycle on the Electric Consumption History chart on each bill. And regarding 90% of members being delinquent, that’s simply not true. For example, during the month of December 2011, less than 1% of our members fell into delinquent status.
GVEA is over charging their customers significantly because they can. They have a MONOPOLY on Fairbanks. We have no other choice. My electric bill was higher than my heating oil bill in January, that is RIDICULOUS!!! I am a home owner and also own rentals here in Fairbanks. I know many people that are moving out of Alaska because they can not afford the cost of electricity and heating oil. Don’t you think that GVEA should calculate what the national average is for electricity and charge it’s customer’s a FAIR rate??? Who is on the board of the Regulatory Commision of Alaska? They are also guilty if they are supposedly “regulating” the costs. GVEA you should be ashamed of yourselves.
When my wife and I first got married, she had a lot of debt from her ex who skipped town owing over 30 grand to local businesses. Her cabin was two months behind in payments, so we concentrated on getting the cabin paid up first. We were paying a payment to GVEA of what we could afford. Even though we were catching up on the delinquent bill with GVEA, GVEA sent us a letter telling us our electric would be shut off if we were not current by a given date. We had to borrow money so our electric would not be shut off. We contacted GVEA and was told there was no option, our bill was delinquent. BS on a company that cares for it’s customers.
Oh the day 49.. Where they come to ur house a leave u a notice thats an extra $32…. They failed to say that!
Thank you for pointing this out. It was an oversight and has been added.
I think we should have another electric company… Gvea is a monopoly? They are a bunch of theives. I am a house hold of 5. I have been out of work for 2 year for medical reasons, hopefully soon i will be able to work. My husband is the only one working. Its hard to pay our bills. Our electric bill last month was 500. 200 of it was the actual usage… I have called about making a payment plan and they told me i could do it but i would also have to pay a huge deposit.. I am already having problems paying our bills with the disconnect notices. Really GVEA… I know who much money you guys have i once worked for key bank and did ur deposits, not one of ur deposits were under a five figure number.. That was every day! GVEA does not care for their customers!! Gvea is out to rob us!
GVEA is the only electric provider in the Interior and we are a not-for-profit company. Golden Valley Electric is regulated by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
Let’s talk about the 2 million in salaries paid to Gvea’s top 12 people. and let’s not forget tto mention that we have the highest utility rate in the United States of America at this time. Let’s not forget the young man I know that was hired at $24 per hour two summers ago and washed cars all summer but had done such a great job at washing cars that when he came back the following summer they gave him a three dollar an hour raise. 27 dollars an hour and he washed fewer cars that summer. Such a deal. We need to take the checkbook back. These people are out of control and we are paying for it.
golden valley is nothing more than a den of thieves. you actually should be ashamed of what you do for a living. its rather disgusting.
I totally agree with GVEA on this. There need to be consequences for people’s actions. I own investment properties and believe me… when GVEA shuts off a tenant’s electricity at -40F, my pipes suffer. But I recoup the money by suing my tenant and they learn an important lesson about money. Letting people get away with delinquent accounts isn’t the answer. Especially when there are other places people can turn to help them pay their bills. (Heating assistance, TANF, etc…)
Doesn’t GVEA charge the delinquent customer $15 to serve the disconnect notice? That’s $27,405 just for the notice. The late fees charged to an account with a balance greater than $299 come to $6022 just for the minimum $2 charge, not counting the percentage figured based on the amount past due. There has to be money left over that could go in a fund to help customers with the financial burden of paying for the cost of the fuel surcharge alone on their bill, which can be higher than the cost of their actual energy usage.
Kari, On day 42, if a bill is unpaid, a delinquent letter is mailed to the member. The cost for this service is $5. (see #3 above) That’s probably what you are referring to when you mention the $15 delinquent customer fee.
GVEA doesn’t make money on delinquent fees. Instead, the fees go to cover costs associated with administering these accounts. The fees are reviewed and regulated by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska.
Betty, It’s really encouraging to hear that Fairbanks is such a giving community. Besides anonymous donations through our Member Services department, other options for your giving might be Love, INC or the Salvation Army (http://blog.gvea.com/wordpress/?p=711). Both organizations assist people with electrical and home heating oil.
We believe that we best serve the community by specializing in electical generation and distribution. Social agencies like Love, INC and the Salvation Army are better suited for the need evaluation and distribution of funds for electrical, home heating and other associated needs.
I do not donate to the Goodcents program. I donate to the organizations through out the year that I pick. however, that said, I would donate to help people pay their elec bill instead of having it shut off. Why don’t you have a program like that to help during the winter months. We are a caring people and while some of the Goodcents programs are good and necessary, I would think keeping children and families warm in the winter months would be top priority.
As an Infantry First Sergeant I completely concur with Jake. When the decision hinges upon life threatening injuries vs. money owed, I think power should be provided. On the other hand, many would take advantage of this generous offer and elect not to pay there bill while spending money on booze and other non-essential items. Having said that there has to be a better way to prevent families from having to endure the arduous weather conditions that Alaska presents. Have GVEA thought of a program that allows members to surrender their dividends directly to GVEA in the event they become extremely delinquent. Most families consist of four to six in a household, that’s a nice piece of change come October, if the family could provide proof of residence and voluntary fill out some paperwork, surrendering their dividends directly to GVEA, that would guarantee at least some form or pay, if not all.
GVEA I thank you for all you do, I hate the price I have to pay, but I guess it’s a part of living in the Arctic
Thank you both for posting. You have some great ideas. When Good¢ents was established, the trustees made it very clear that grants would not be made for payment of electric utility bills. This is to maintain the “arm’s length” relationship between Golden Valley and Good¢ents.
The Pick, Click, Give program requires all participating organizations be at least two years old. The Good¢ents Board of Trustees plans to look into this program as soon as we hit the second year mark. Signing over a PFD is something we will look into (updated: We did look into this. At this time, the State of Alaska does not allow for the assignment of PFDs to non-governmental agencies). Thank you for the suggestion, though!
Members can make anonymous donations to help others with their electric bills at any time. Simply call 452-1151 or stop by any of our office locations (Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Nenana).
Maybe using some of that “good cents” money to get people through the winter on there bills would help. Keep there power on until it’s not a life threatening event. Give them notice that as of May 1st your power will be cut if your bills are not caught up. I personally as a “member” would be happy to pay an extra dollar a month to help those who can’t pay there bill during the cold.