Reactions to the optional rate structure that will be available through September as an alternative to the Glasgow Electric Plant Board’s controversial coincident peak rate structure have not been favorable.

Jake Dickinson, a Glasgow City Council member who’s been an outspoken critic of the new rate structure, said he doesn’t expect a large number of people to switch to the optional rate.  

“I think the optional rate provides no relief,” he said. “You still have to be extremely wary of your energy consumption or these high rates are going to bite you.”

Dickinson said he’s worried that the rate for onpeak hours could be as financially burdensome as the coincident peak. 

“I’m glad the coincident peak is missing from this particular structure but it’s still going to punish those who aren’t careful with their usage,” he said.  

The coincident peak hour, which went into effect in January, charges roughly $11 per kilowatt hour for electricity during the hour of each month when demand is highest. Since its implementation, critics have said the structure places an unfair burden on certain customers who don’t have the ability to adjust their electric use during potential peak hours, which, in the summer, tend to come on some of the hottest days of the month. 

As of Friday afternoon, EPB president Billy Ray said fewer than 10 people had signed up for the new rate. 

“The only reason we made that available is that the attorney general asked strongly that we offer something right away,” he said. “It’s not very attractive, but it’s what we’ve got.” 

The optional rate offers “little other than a removal from the coincident peak,” he said.

In response to an Aug. 25 letter from Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office urging EPB to immediately return to its previous rate structure until a new rate is developed, EPB announced a new optional rate that charges 15.521 cents per kWh during onpeak hours, which in September will be from 1 to 7 p.m. weekdays, except federal holidays, and 4.838 cents during offpeak hours.

According to Ray, the Tennessee Valley Authority, the utility’s provider, forbade EPB from returning to the old rate.  

In response to this, Beshear said in a statement, “I am pleased that the GEPB is seeking a new rate structure, but I am disappointed at the failure of the board and the superintendent to take responsibility for the harm that has been caused.” 

At a special-called meeting of the EPB’s board of directors Wednesday, Ray suggested the board vote to kill the optional rate at the end of September in favor of the new rate structure the board ordered him to formulate by its next regular meeting near the end of September.  

Karla Norman, a founding member of Glasgow Citizens Against the New EPB Rate Structure, switched to the optional rate structure Thursday. 

“I’m very much in the minority,” she said, adding that she doesn’t expect most members of Glasgow Citizens to switch to the optional rate. 

When she went to the EPB office to sign up for the optional rate structure around noon Thursday, the receptionist told her she was the third person to apply, Norman said. 

She suspects the optional rate has seen so little interest from the public because it won’t save much money, she said.

Norman thinks the optional rate might actually cost her more than the coincident peak system but likes the idea of not having to reschedule her life based on when rates are higher, she said.     

“I’m willing to pay the extra money in order not to have to turn everything off during those warning periods,” she said.  

Because the optional rate is expected to only be available for one month, many people have decided not to bother with it, Norman said.

“They’re just going to wait to see what’s offered in October,” she said. 

— Follow reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.