Archived News Articles 2010

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2010

• New GEUS Consumer Services Center to Open Monday
• Explanation of New Line Items on GEUS Bills
• GEUS’ New Rates Begin This Month
• Energy Center Brochure
• GEUS’ Fuel Cost Rising
• Tom Darte Energy Center could save $7 million annually
• Tom Darte Energy Center dedicated
• Engine Plant Commissioning Coincides With GEUS’ Summer Rates
• GEUS System Bears the Test of Record Snowfall
• Greenville Establishes New Winter Electrical Load Peak

New GEUS Consumer Services Center to Open Monday

(November 10, 2010) Renovations to the former Post Office at 2810 Wesley have been completed and GEUS will combine all consumer service functions in that location beginning Monday November 15th.

GEUS customers will be able to make payments as well as sign up for new services or seek assistance at this one central location.

The consumer service locations at 2821 Washington and 6000 Joe Ramsey Blvd. will be closed, but the drop box at the Joe Ramsey location will remain active with payments processed daily.

“The new Consumer Service Center was designed with the safety, comfort and privacy of our consumers in mind”, said GEUS General Manager David McCalla. “We are confident that the new facility will allow our consumer service associates to offer efficient and responsive service to all water, sewer, garbage, electric, cable TV and Internet consumers”, added McCalla.

Explanation of New Line Items on GEUS Bills

(October 29, 2010) GEUS has received a number of questions from consumers regarding the new line items on the electric and cable bills. The line items are listed on the bill as, “CITY – GENERAL FUND TRANSFER 5%” and “GBOD – GENERAL FUND TRANSFER 1%” and have been shown on bills beginning in October.

David McCalla, GEUS General Manager said, “The charges associated with these two line items are NOT new or additional charges and are now being shown on the bill to provide more financial transparency for consumers.”

GEUS is required by provisions of the City Charter1 to transfer 5% of adjusted gross revenues to the general fund of the City of Greenville and to transfer an additional 1% of adjusted gross revenues for use of the Greenville Board of Development. The Charter provisions have existed since 1988 when the Article XI-A language was adopted that set up the Electric Utility Board. In May of this year, Greenville voters approved a change to the transfer to City of Greenville, increasing the transfer from 3% to 5%.

Prior to October 1st of this year, the transfers were embedded in GEUS’ rates and the charges were not listed separately on the bill. The change in rate design enabled the transfers to be listed separately on the bill. David McCalla emphasized, “The transfers to the City and GBOD have not changed from what they were prior to October 1st. This change in bill format was recommended by GEUS management and was supported by City management as a way to provide more information to consumers.”

If consumers have additional questions about these line items, they are encouraged to contact David McCalla or Jimmy Dickey at (903) 457-2800.

GEUS’ New Rates Begin This Month

(October 18, 2010) GEUS reminds customers that the new electric rates approved last month by the GEUS Board become effective this month.

The GEUS Board recently approved new rates for both residential and commercial customers based on a cost of service study performed by R. W. Beck. Beck’s analysis determined that only minor changes to the rate structure were necessary and that the new rates would collect approximately the same revenue as had been collected in the past. This was the first formal GEUS rate analysis since 1993.

Included in the new rates is a reduction of the Fuel Adjustment Charge/Power Cost Recovery Factor (FAC/PCRF). The FAC/PCRF drops from 4.484 cents/kWh to 3.3 cents. Also included are minor changes to the energy and customer charges plus the elimination of the demand ratchet for commercial customers. The ratchet has been an industry-wide standard for many years that collects revenue throughout the year based upon the highest month’s metered demand over the prior year. With elimination of the ratchet, beginning this month commercial customers will only be charged for the demand peak they set each month.

Consumers will begin seeing two new lines on their bills which is a break out of fees for which they have been paying monthly since 1988. The Greenville City Charter requires a general fund transfer to be paid to the City of Greenville and the Greenville Board of Development on all GEUS services. Investor-owned utilities pay a similar franchise fee to the cities they serve.

The Charter Election in May 2010 increased the transfer amount by 2% bringing the totals to 5% for the City of Greenville and 1% for the Greenville Board of Development.

GEUS’ Fuel Cost Rising

(June 30, 2010) Rising natural gas costs have caused GEUS to increase the utility’s Fuel Adjustment Charge\Power Cost Recovery Factor (FAC\PCRF) beginning July 1, 2010 for all residential and commercial consumers.

The one cent\kWh increase brings the FAC\PCRF to 4.484 cents for each kWh consumed.

GEUS’ pass through fuel cost has been very stable the past year after record volatility in the natural gas market in 2008.

GEUS receives over 60% of its power from low cost coal-fired generation. The remainder is purchased on the open market or generated locally using natural gas.

“We are very fortunate to have the Tom Darte Energy Center producing power this Summer as it uses up to 30% less natural gas than our older units, thus holding down our costs”, said David McCalla, GEUS General Manager.

McCalla is referring to the recently commissioned fast start, energy efficient 25MW generating units that just came on line in North Greenville this Summer.

The one cent increase per kWh is expected to increase the average residential consumer’s bill by $10\month, but rates for GEUS’ customers will continue to be below the average electric rate paid by customers in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex.”

Tom Darte Energy Center Could Save $7 Million Annually

(June 29, 2010) GEUS, Greenville, Texas’ municipally-owned electric provider, recently took steps to lower their citizen’s cost of electricity and guard against volatile market spikes. The 13,000 electric meter system in North East Texas recently dedicated its new $34 million 25MW fast start, high efficiency, environmentally friendly natural gas engine plant by naming it the Tom Darte Energy Center. This addition continues a long tradition of municipally-owned and operated generation that dates back to 1891 when Greenville became the first municipally-owned electric generating utility in Texas.

Tom Darte has committed his entire career to public power with the last 22 years being focused on protecting the interest of Greenville consumers. He served eighteen of those years as the GEUS General Manager. The last four years Darte has worked as a part-time consultant for GEUS and managed the engine plant construction project. Darte is a past Texas Public Power Association President and a former Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) Board Member.

Adding fast start, highly efficient natural gas-fired generation became Darte’s dream as GEUS’ 1960-70’s era steam units became less capable in recent years to protect Greenville from a sometimes volatile Texas electric market. Having generating units with fast start capability will help support reliability of the ERCOT grid that has seen rapid growth of intermittent and non-dispatchable resources such as wind turbines.

The three new 8.4MW units, featuring Wartsila reciprocating engines, will be up to 30% more efficient than GEUS’ older units and have fast start capability allowing them to produce power within eight minutes of start up.

As Project Manager, Darte weathered the storms of last Fall while still completing the project two months early so they could be utilized this Summer while remaining $1 million under budget.

North East Texas received record rainfall levels of greater then 32 inches last Fall during the dirt work and foundation phase of the construction project and experienced a cold winter with near record snowfall. The resourceful engineers and dedicated contractors under Darte’s leadership completed the project two months ahead of schedule, despite the challenging weather conditions, so that the generating units would be available for use in Summer 2010.

The entire project was completed without a single reportable or lost time accident due to the outstanding Safe Work practices of the contractors and oversight by Burns & McDonnell’s Safety Manager.

Gary Groninger, Burns & McDonnell Engineering Consultant, predicts the Tom Darte Energy Center could save the citizens of Greenville as much as $7 million annually. These savings will keep GEUS’ electric rates competitive which have averaged 9 cents\kWh for residential consumers this past year.

Tom Darte Energy Center Dedicated

(June 24, 2010) GEUS Chairman Don Bolin announced tonight that the utility’s newly constructed engine plant has been named after former GEUS General Manager Tom Darte.

The Tom Darte Energy Center is located next to GEUS’ Steam Generation Station on Power Lane in North Greenville and features state-of-the-art, fast start, high efficiency, environmentally friendly natural gas engines to produce electricity.

Tom Darte was the GEUS General Manager for 18 years before his retirement in 2006. Darte stayed on as part-time consultant after retirement and has filled the role as Project Manager.

“Tom Darte dedicated his whole career to public power”, said GEUS Board of Trustees Chairman Don Bolin. “GEUS is proud to place Tom Darte’s name on a facility that will mean so much to current and future Greenville residents”, Bolin added.

The commissioning of this new generation marks the first municipally-owned utility in Texas to install these type reciprocating engines. This facility will result in significant savings for Greenville’s electric consumers as the plant is up to 30% more efficient than the natural-gas fired steam units that have been in use since the 1960-70’s.

This plant is easily expandable by adding more engines as Greenville grows.

Engine Plant Commissioning Coincides with GEUS’ Summer Rates

(May 26, 2010) GEUS’ Power Supply Division has new options this summer as they work to minimize consumer’s electric cost.

This group makes decisions daily as to how to supplement the energy that is received from Greenville’s share of the Gibbons Creek coal-fired generation plant located near Bryan, TX. With 65% coming from this plant, the remaining 35% must be either purchased on the open Texas electric market or produced locally by GEUS through natural gas-fired generation.

This task has many challenges. “We are continually looking several days ahead anticipating weather patterns and the expected load requirements of our customers in order to have the most economical generation source available”, said GEUS General Manager David McCalla.

The decision has to be made daily as to whether to purchase GEUS’ peak needs or to produce it here locally. These decisions have become more challenging over the past few years in Texas as the electric market has become volatile with summer afternoon market price spikes sometimes reaching 60 times the going rate for a few hours. Being caught in a purchasing position during these periods can greatly increase GEUS’ customer’s cost of electricity.

GEUS’ current local natural gas-fired generation consists of older units with start times taking 2-3 hours meaning GEUS cannot bring them online in time to avoid the increased cost or to sell into the spiked market.

Beginning June 4, 2010, GEUS’ new natural gas-fired engine plant will become fully operational. This fast start 25MW plant is located in northwest Greenville adjacent to the existing generation plant and will be as much as 30% more efficient than the existing plant. It will also run quieter.

“This plant will lower our cost of local production plus the ten minute start time will allow us to sell into market spikes”, said McCalla. “The revenue from these spikes will roll back in to lower each GEUS customer’s fuel adjustment charge,” McCalla added.

GEUS residential customers are reminded that June also begins the summer billing period. GEUS, like many other utilities in Texas, charge more during the summer to offset added costs.

Consumers are encouraged to set their thermostats at 78 degrees or higher and to contact GEUS about the $avvy Consumer Program. This program is designed to assist all customers in adding energy efficiency measures to their home or business.

GEUS System Bears the Test of Record Snowfall

(February 16, 2010) GEUS’ system reliability remained strong during record snowfall last week that left many North Texas homes and businesses without power for an extended period of time. Other area utilities reported a significant number of sustained outages due to the storm.

It took GEUS crews just over an hour to restore power to approximately 87 residents losing power mostly due to tree limbs in lines. The GEUS cable TV and Internet network fared well also, with only six cable drops to homes having to be replaced.

“Many hours of tree trimming begins to pay dividends when ice or snow moves into an area”, said GEUS Board Chairman Don Bolin. “This was not luck, but the result of a concerted long-term effort to maintain clear right-of-ways,” Bolin added.

GEUS has long used in-house and contract tree trimming crews to stay ahead of the growth. GEUS has spent $308,000 in recent years including $62,000 recently authorized by the GEUS Board to renew an existing tree trimming contract.

Greenville Establishes New Winter Electrical Load Peak

(January 8, 2010) GEUS reached a new winter electrical peak of 89MW this morning at 8AM eclipsing the 88MW established in January 2007.

GEUS’ all-time summer peak of 113MW occurred in August 2008.

The Utility’s residential winter rates include declining prices as more electricity is consumed. This rate structure has encouraged the increased installation of electrical heat in the area as has volatile natural gas prices in recent years.