DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — If you’re a Georgia Power customer, expect to see a rate hike reflected in your bill soon.
On June 1, the average customer will see their electricity bill increase by around $16 a month.
Rickey Simon, a Georgia Power customer, told Channel 2′s Richard Elliott he didn’t like to hear that it’s going to cost more to cool off his 3,600-square-foot home in Lithonia.
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“Run it every day. All day, pretty much constantly,” he said about air conditioning his home. “You got to have it, yeah. If you don’t it never catches up.”
Channel 2 Action News was the only news crew inside the Public Service Commission (PSC) meeting as commissioners approved a rate hike for Georgia Power.
The utility company said it needed the extra money to cover its own fuel costs as everything from the price of coal and natural gas has gone up.
Under state law that cost has to be passed on to customers, but it also prohibits Georgia Power from profiting from it.
“So the fuels we use in our power plants, the price of those have gone up dramatically in the past few years, just like people have experienced at the gas pump,” Georgia Power spokesperson John Kraft said.
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Shortly after the vote, Elliott spoke with PSC chairperson Tricia Pridemore, who said the average customer will pay more for electricity.
“So you’re going to see a monthly increase that’s going to be anywhere between about $13 and $16 and that bill increase will start in June, the beginning of June,” Pridemore said.
That’s not something Simon wanted to hear.
“I don’t like it, man. I mean, I wish there was something I could do about it,” he said.
The best thing to do to reduce your costs is to reduce your energy usage.
But that’s tough to do once the temperature reaches 90 degrees outside.
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