GLASGOW – As its members considered the input of professionals from several agencies, the Glasgow Electric Plant Board Advisory Council moved closer Thursday to recommending a new rate structure for the electricity provider.

Ultimately, the group decided the EPB needs a stronger method of informing the community about how its rate structuring works, although it hasn’t yet decided on a replacement or alternative rate structure to Infotricity, the system the EPB established in January 2016 that charges roughly $10 per kilowatt/hour during the hour of the month when demand is highest.

Debbie Biggers, a council member, said specific advice is sometimes difficult to follow or understand, especially for seniors who are often unclear about how the rate structure works.

“I personally was told not to run my hair dryer when I called EPB one time and it’s kind of like me being a nurse and saying to somebody, ‘I want you to control your blood sugar,’ but I don’t tell you the parameters. You don’t know if 500 is high or you don’t know if 100 is high,” she said.

Joe Downing, another council member, echoed Biggers’ comments about a need for a stronger method of educating the public.

Downing said he managed to figure out Infotricity well enough to save money on his electric bill, but the process took a great deal of effort and even required discussing the matter with EPB workers.

“I went out there and they sat down with me and answered all my questions,” he said. “I feel like a lot of times people do not have that time like I did and if it doesn’t go the way we want, sometimes we don’t follow up again.”

Sherri Myers, a council member who helped found the group Glasgow Citizens Against the New EPB Rate Structure, was less convinced that stronger educational efforts from the EPB are what’s needed.

“There’s been a lot of education out there that people either didn’t understand or they just didn’t care to even access, so I don’t know if that’s really the answer,” she said.

No opposition to an improved system of communicating with the public was voiced during the meeting. That prompted John Sterling, senior director of consulting firm Smart Electric Power Alliance and the meeting’s moderator, to say he would look at examples of other utilities that educate their customers on their rates to find an approach to recommend to the EPB.

During the meeting, Michael Hynes, director of Tennessee Valley Authority’s Rate Design and Administration, explained how TVA charges each utility it provides with power. Two representatives of Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear’s office discussed a rate structure they recommended the EPB install as an alternative in September.

The model the attorney general’s office suggested is an example of “critical peak pricing,” according to Rebecca Goodman, who heads the office of rate intervention in Beshear’s office. This was chosen as a template because a consultant the attorney general’s office hired determined it to be predictable and easy for customers to understand, she said.

“There was a lot of literature on it and so it appeared to be highly successful,” she said.

Critical peak pricing includes a limited number of definite coincident peak charges to be announced ahead of time. With the revenue generated from these peaks, the EPB would pay TVA for the monthly peak that TVA charges.

Another method that was highlighted at the council’s previous meeting, which calls for an increase in the cost of electricity for customers who use more, was not discussed.

Downing said he likes the sound of the critical peak pricing structure on paper but is worried about the possibility of too few people using electricity during announced peak hours to cover the cost of TVA’s prescribed peak for the month.

“I just need to figure out what happens if what we say is going to be the peak isn’t the peak and the (utility) owes more money than what they’ve taken in,” he said.

Myers said she’s leaning toward the critical peak pricing structure.

“I feel like it’s a good way for the EPB to recover everything that’s going to be owed to the TVA and in addition it gives people more control over their own usage,” she said. “They know exactly when they need to conserve instead of having to guess.”

When the meeting concluded, Sterling announced that another meeting would be at 5:30 p.m. June 27 at the Mary Wood Weldon Memorial Library to determine the rate structure the group wants to recommend.

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