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Doug Bechtel
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Some OPALCOGRAMS bring a lot of response, some very little. My one on rates last time prompted a series of comments from our members. Several of you have accounts in Seattle and were quick to point out that you receive bills every other month instead of every month, and during the winter you pay 3.6¢ per kWh for the first 480 kWh and 5.8¢ per kWh after that, with a minimum charge of $2.75 per month.
One of our members sent me a bill from Long Island Light, back in New York, where the first 200 hours per month cost 15.6¢ per kWh and after that 16¢ per kWh. Enough on rates for now!
In our efforts to be as cost effective as we can, we have been looking at areas where our prices are not in line with what others are charging for the same service. One of the areas that we are tackling right now is the cost to bury lines for a new service to connect one of our members.
If your new home is in a rocky area (often on Orcas, occasionally on San Juan, and seldom on Lopez) we will require the instal-lation of conduit to protect our wires from damage by the rocks, pavement, fences and so on. We have come to the conclusion that others in San Juan County can install this conduit far cheaper than we can.
We are in the final stages of developing a specification that will be available to contractors installing conduit. In those cases where conduit is required you will probably find a lower cost to have your contractor install the conduit (we will still install and connect the wires). In other cases you might want us to install the conduit anyway.
If you are going to be asking us to install a new service in the near future, you might ask if conduit will be required and about having your contractor install it.
Conduit is not a bad idea even if it is not required for other reasons. Once conduit is installed, it becomes very easy for us to repair or replace the wires if there is ever a problem. Without conduit we need to dig up the wires to make repairs. With conduit, we just pull out the old wire and pull in new and usually don't need to do any digging. You might talk to our engineers about the cost to install conduit for your new service, even where it is not absolutely required.
A final comment on a different topic. A little over a year ago we installed a new telephone system that routes all telephone calls through our Eastsound office. Thus, all of our phone numbers now begin with 376. This is particularly important for our members on San Juan Island where, if you dial one of our numbers with a 378 prefix you are not going to reach OPALCO and may bother our good natured members who end up getting many calls intended for us.
Doug Bechtel
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