It has been tough for many of you while fighting through the pandemic and the economic issues of the last few years. You have seen fuel prices spike and most other goods and services increase dramatically in many cases. We here at Guernsey-Muskingum Electric have had the same issues to contend with. We have experienced supply chain issues and cost increases nearly double what they were. The price of skilled labor and equipment continues to place pressure on rates. The availability of many of our items to keep your power on have significant delays from suppliers. One example is the meters that were ordered in the spring of 2021 have only been trickling into the office. We had expected to be fully deployed by July of 2022, but now we really do not have an arrival date.

I know many of you have experienced the same or even greater challenges. With all that said your Board of Directors has a responsibility to have a strong and ready-to-perform cooperative and this takes money to operate. Unfortunately, we will be raising the service availability charge by $1 per month and the rate by 3 mils or $3 per 1,000-kilowatt hours which is an average residential usage on our system. The total increase since February 2021 will be 8.7%. The total rate for a 1,000 kWh bill will be $161.72 per month.

Our goal is to hold the line on rates if possible. Although the Cooperative has passed on increases in the past, we have been able to handle most of the cost by selling more kilowatt-hours. The rate adjustments over the last several years have been primarily generation and transmission increases, but these are primarily to meet the local cooperative pressures to maintain rights-of-way and maintenance on our system. Thank you for your support throughout the years.