Sep 4, 2008

As Ava City Utilities customers began receiving the monthly bills this week, many had questions about the new PPA charge on the bill. In response, the following statement was prepared by the city to help customers understand the items on their bill. What is PPA? PPA stands for Purchased Power Adjustment. This is not a new charge, but rather the Sho-Me Power "pass along" portion of your electric bill. The PPA allows automatic charges to be posted when the cost of purchased power rises (or falls) from our electric supplier. This pass along has been a part of your utility bill for several years now, but until recently it was included in the total electric fee and was just a very minimal charge. The City has not increased its rates, but has rather passed along the rate increases imposed by Sho-Me Power. The PPA will fluctuate tremendously at times depending on these fees passed along by Sho-Me and as we stated before, the net affect ultimately will be about a 50-60 percent increase in your total electric bill. This is what the city has been fiercely fighting to change since January of this year, but to no avail. We will have more details as to what we have done to fight this rate increase from Sho-Me on our City Page this month in the Herald, but as it stands now we have no recourse on this matter but to continue negotiating with Sho-Me Power, which we are currently doing. In the meantime, the City will continue to do our best and we will attempt to answer our customers’ questions as best we can. However, we must ask that you treat our employees courteously when paying your bills or calling to ask questions. Most customers, although frustrated, have been understanding, but a few have been very negative and somewhat nasty to our clerks. This is unacceptable behavior and we must ask that you remember that they have no bearing in the decisions made about electric rates and they are just doing their job.