The five days of unprecedented winter weather during February 14-19, 2021, were some of the most difficult days GVEC has experienced in its entire 83-year history. The impact of those snowy, relentlessly cold winter days will likely reverberate for years to come across the entire Texas energy industry.
In the weeks and months since, we have tried to maintain open lines of communication with our membership regarding our plans moving forward. As previously communicated, GVEC experienced extreme power prices within the event, with literally months and months of power supply costs being incurred in one week. Record shattering increases were not just felt by GVEC, but by almost every load-serving electric company within the state.
Due to GVEC’s extensive history of strong financial management, including long-term strategies to hedge against large market fluctuations, we do not need to quickly pass all exponentially high costs experienced between February 14-19 to members. However, as we’ve consistently stated, we will need to raise the Generation and Transmission (G&T) rate by some degree.
Since the event, we’ve considered multiple scenarios and exhaustively studied the possibilities. Our goal has been to design a rate to recover the necessary costs over multiple years while minimizing overall impact to members. With that in mind, we’ve finalized an increase to our G&T rate from $0.059 cents per kWh to $0.066 per kWh. This adjustment will result in an approximate $10-per-month increase for an average bill of 1,500 kWh:
This rate adjustment will take effect beginning with bills distributed on and after May 1, 2021. As always, please contact us should you need tools and resources or have questions regarding your bill.
As a reminder, GVEC is a not-for-profit cooperative. Rates are not adjusted unless absolutely necessary to cover costs and continue providing our customers with reliable, dependable services. While any increase may seem like a negative, the Board of Directors and staff are relieved we were able to keep the adjustment and impact to our members minimal considering what could have been catastrophic pricing effects of the historic winter event of February 2021.
