Energy Conservation Remains Important to Reducing Your Electric Bill

SCOTT CITY–Wheatland Electric would like to urge our members to continue to conserve energy through the remainder of February. Wheatland Electric bills our members for the electricity used from the first of the month until the end of each month. The current high wholesale energy prices we are expecting will be averaged across the entire month. Therefore, the more energy you conserve over the next six days, the more you will be able to mitigate the effects on your upcoming bill.

There are several components to your electric bill:

1. Service Availability Charge: This is a monthly minimum charge designed to pay a portion of the fixed costs of providing electric service regardless of energy used. These costs include transmission and distribution lines, substations, transformers and equipment, along with other administrative and general costs.
2. Energy Charge: This is the amount you are charged for each kilowatt used. These costs reflect our tariffs. Tariff charges (which make up approximately 40% of this amount are for Wheatland's delivery of electricity), and the wholesale price of electricity (the approximate 60% of the remaining amount) are included in this charge.
3. Power Cost Adjustment (PCA): In the energy charge, there is a base charge for wholesale power for each kWh consumed. When Wheatland receives the wholesale power bill from Sunflower each month, the entirety of all costs is averaged for the month to calculate the PCA. If the average cost is above the base charge, there is a PCA charge per each kWh on your electric bill. If the average costs are below the base charge, there is a PCA credit per each kWh on your electric bill.

Over the last several months, the PCA on your electric bills have been a negative number due to the low price of natural gas.  The winter weather event, Uri, that occurred the week of February 13-18, 2021, required Sunflower Electric Power Corporation to purchase natural gas at record high costs. These prices will be reflected in the PCA on your February bill that you will receiving in March.

Again, we would like to urge our members to continue to conserve energy through the remainder of the month. The more energy you conserve the more you will be able to mitigate the effects on your upcoming bill, which is directly impacted by the Power Cost Adjustment. For a list of the various ways you can conserve energy, view a video message from our CEO/General Manager Bruce W. Mueller. 

Thank you for doing your part to help us conserve energy.  We will get through this unusual winter weather event by working together. Please remember, Wheatland Electric will be working on ways to assist the membership with the expected high electric bills. We will continue to provide more information on this in the coming days. You can also follow us on social media to stay informed. 

About Us

Our Mission: Delivering Energy for Life–Wheatland Electric Cooperative, Inc., a member owned distribution cooperative headquartered in Scott City, KS, was established in 1948 as a distribution and power cooperative in the state of Kansas. Today, Wheatland Electric serves more than 33,000 electric meters in 14 Kansas counties and three Colorado counties and maintains over 4,000 miles of distribution power lines across western, southcentral Kansas and eastern Colorado. Together, with the help of our members, we are committed to building a better and stronger rural America. Visit www.weci.net for more information.