Utilities Just Passing On Higher Price of Gas

Northwest Arkansas

by Talk Business & Politics ([email protected]) December 20, 2004 12:00 am 78 views 

Mitchell Johnson, president and CEO of Ozarks Electric Cooperative Corp. in Fayetteville, said the utility company has been adding about 250 new meters per month to its service lately. That’s up from an average of 150 new monthly meters last year.

“Our average member growth in the late ’90s and early 2000s was at 3.5 percent,” he said. “Now we are seeing the last two years, and projected for the next three years, growth of 6 to 6.5 percent.”

The company’s average number of meters billed per month has gone up by nearly 5,000 in the last three years from 51,868 in 2001 to 55,300 in 2003. Since 2000, Ozarks Electric has spent $53.6 million in new construction to accommodate area growth and infrastructure needs.

To date, Ozarks has paid out $26 million in capital credits to its members and has averaged a total payout of $1 million in credits per year for the last five years.

“Every dollar that we make in profit, we allocate that to our membership so that the people we actually serve have an ownership interest,” Johnson said.

The company’s revenue totaled $63.7 million in 2003, a 7.3 percent increase from $59 million in 2002. Assets, which were $169.1 million in 2003, have increased by about $10 million per year since 2001, when assets totaled $149.8 million.

Ozarks Electric serves Washington County, parts of Benton and Madison counties, and a smidgen of Crawford, Johnson and Franklin counties. In Oklahoma, the company serves most of Adair and Cherokee counties.

About 75 to 80 percent of customers are in Benton, Washington and Madison counties and most of the cooperative’s growth is in Washington and Benton counties, said Penny Storm, manager of communications for Ozarks Electric.

Johnson said Ozarks Electric projects growth 25 years out.

“Twenty-five years from now, projected demand will be over double what it is right now,” Johnson said. “So the energy usage from our customers will actually be double on our system.”

The company plans on building three substations in the next three years at a projected cost of $1.2 million per substation. That’s in addition to its existing 27 substations.