Looking beyond the numbers

One of the responsibilities of an electric cooperative is earning and keeping the trust of the people we serve. That means when questions arise, we believe in answering them with honesty and transparency.

Recently, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its first national report on residential electric utility disconnections. The report indicated Oklahoma had one of the nation’s highest residential disconnection rates.

After reviewing the report, Oklahoma’s electric cooperatives identified inconsistencies in the way some information appears to have been reported. We’ve been working directly with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission and EIA officials to better understand the data and help ensure future reports accurately reflect how electric cooperatives operate.

One example involves voluntary prepaid electric service, an option many cooperatives offer because it gives members greater flexibility in managing their electric bills. Members on prepaid service can add funds whenever it’s convenient, even in very small amounts, and monitor their balance throughout the month.

If a prepaid account balance reaches zero, automated notifications are generated as part of the system. Electric coopratives reported these notifications which were inadvertently reflected in the EIA report.

Through conversations with EIA officials, we’ve learned activity associated with these prepaid accounts should not have been included as residential service disconnections. Correcting reporting like this is important because it paints a more accurate picture.

More importantly, the numbers alone don’t tell the story of how electric cooperatives serve their members.

As not-for-profit, member-owned utilities, our goal is never to disconnect service. Every day, cooperative employees work with members facing financial challenges by offering payment arrangements, budget billing, prepaid options, referrals to assistance programs and other solutions that help families stay connected. In many cases, these efforts prevent service interruptions altogether.

Those successes don’t appear in a national report, but they happen every day across rural Oklahoma.

At the end of the day, electric cooperatives exist to serve people, not shareholders. Every decision we make is guided by what’s best for the members and communities who own their cooperative.

We appreciate the EIA’s effort to collect this information for the first time, and we support continued improvements to the survey so future reports more accurately reflect utility operations. Reliable data leads to better decisions, and that’s something we all benefit from.

By Nicki Fuller

General Manager | Oklahoma Association of Electric Cooperatives