The Peru Gazette

The message was received at 8:17 PM on Feb. 13.

Providing safe, reliable energy service to you at an affordable price remains our top priority. That’s why we continue to prioritize investments in a stronger, resilient energy grid. If you experience a power outage, we remain committed to restoring power as quickly and safely as possible.

Destructive storms that were once every 100 years are becoming the norm annually in New York state. Over the past several years, these damaging storms have wreaked havoc on the state’s infrastructure, primarily its electric transmission and distribution systems. In 2024 alone, costs to restore, and in many cases rebuild, have run into the millions of dollars. Even with large investments in preventative infrastructure, storms are more intense and frequent than ever before.

We take our role in your daily life seriously. Addressing these storm costs through traditional ratemaking would bring high bill impacts over a short period of time. Securitization is an alternative mechanism to ratemaking that can be used to resolve certain costs, in this case legacy storm costs, with lower interest rates, reducing the impact to you. Securitization is similar to refinancing your mortgage to secure a lower interest rate. Legislation authorizing securitization was signed into law in 2024 and the New York Public Service Commission, our government regulator, approved the securitization plan because it provides benefits to our customers.

Your bill will include a recovery charge on electricity consumption and demand effective February 11, 2025. The recovery charge is calculated based on your electricity use. A residential customer using 600 kWh of electricity will see a monthly bill impact of about $10 for six months. After six months, and based on current projections, the recovery charge is estimated to decrease to approximately $5 a month for the same residential customer using 600 kWh of electricity. The approved recovery charge allows a lower interest rate on certain past storm costs over ten years to your benefit. We do not make any profit on the charge.

Our commitment to providing you safe and reliable service is stronger than ever. Together we will build a more resilient energy grid that meets the challenges of tomorrow.