News

7/28/2010

Electricity -- a real bargain

By Renee Beasley Jones

Communications Manager

At Kenergy, we know our member-owners enjoy some of the cheapest electric rates in the nation. Our residential members pay less than 7 cents per kilowatt hour.

The national average is nearly 12 cents.

But that statement doesn’t mean a lot to most of our members – or to me.  And I work in the utility industry.

To explain our price per kilowatt hour, I could ask one of the co-op’s engineers to provide some complicated multiplication of hours and power.  Our graphic designer could devise graphs and charts comparing the price Kenergy charges with other utilities.

If you are like I am, your eyes would glaze over.

Instead, the Kenergy team came up with an easy-to-understand way to show the value of electricity:  Compare the cost of electricity with other purchases to demonstrate the bargain you receive every time you flip a switch to burn a light bulb or turn on a TV.

Here goes:

On Aug. 22, the San Francisco Giants will play the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium.  On the Cardinals’ Web site, cheap seats go for $30 each that day.  Of course, that doesn’t count the price of gas to drive to St. Louis or the cost of sodas, popcorn and hotdogs. 

For the same $30 that you would spend on one seat at Busch Stadium, you can watch TV for a year or operate an energy-efficient light bulb 24 hours a day for 94 years!

Earlier this season, I bought a dress at Macy’s for $70. For the price I paid for that dress, Kenergy members can operate their refrigerators for a year or wash clothes for 10 years!

Finally, if I took my 12-year-old granddaughter Riah to Malco Theatre in Owensboro to watch “Toy Story” in 3D, I would pay $20 for tickets. For the same amount, Kenergy members can use their microwaves for a year or use their hair dryers for 10 years!

Here’s another perspective to mull over also.  The Cards game lasts a couple of hours. The dress from Macy’s will go out of style before I wear it 20 times. And the “Toy Story” movie lasts about 90 minutes.

Compare that with running your washing machine or hair dryer for 10 years.  Compare it to lighting a room – around the clock, no less -- for nearly a century.

So the next time you look at your electric bill, think about all the convenience and comfort you derive from your co-op for a whole month.  We invite you to compare your Kenergy bill to the price of filling up an SUV with gasoline for a week or the price of groceries for a week.

At Kenergy, we deliver reliable, safe power to a good-sized portion of rural western Kentucky.  And compared to the price of most goods and services, your co-op delivers a real bargain.

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