You may wonder why we encourage you to use electricity efficiently. After all, we’re in the business of selling kilowatt-hours—so why would we want our customers to use less electricity?
Unlike other utilities, your cooperative isn’t in business to make a profit; it’s in business to serve you in the most efficient, reliable and cost-effective way possible. Each co-op is collectively owned by the people it serves and shares its members’ interest in keeping costs down.
We strongly encourage energy conservation for a number of reasons. First, it’s common sense. Although fossil fuels are still relatively abundant, they are finite. Depleting these natural resources too quickly contributes to environmental degradation and means there will be less fuel for future generations.
Conserving energy also saves money in two ways: Using less electricity decreases your electric bill, and when many consumers lower their usage, it saves your cooperative money as well. That’s because electric co-ops must keep enough power on hand to supply all members’ highest usage. So if electricity can be conserved, less overall power is needed, new power sources may not have to be tapped as soon as they would otherwise and the construction of costly new generating plants can be postponed.
As our electric system continues to grow, we must maintain an adequate supply of power. Your conservation efforts, combined with the efforts of fellow members, can ensure the cooperative’s stability and continued growth.
Here at Trinity Valley Electric Cooperative, we seek to keep your electricity affordable by automating operations where possible and by setting reasonable budgets that do not sacrifice reliability or service. We have no control, however, over the market price of fuels needed to generate electricity.
We’ll continue to offer tips for conserving electricity and using it efficiently, even though we’re in the business of selling it. You can count on TVEC to continue looking out for you.
