BEDFORD, Va. – If your electric bill has gone up recently, you are not alone — and Bedford officials want residents to understand why.
At a town hall meeting Tuesday, local leaders and utility representatives tried to explain how the current electricity system works and what is driving higher costs for residents.
Jane McKeon, a Bedford resident who attended the meeting, said the speed of the changes caught many in the community off guard.
“It’s a big change for the community to see these kinds of rate hikes. It happened so fast with very little warning, and I think that was part of the questions that were answered this evening is that there was very little warning,” McKeon said.
How electricity billing works
Officials used a straightforward analogy to help residents understand their bills: think of electricity like a highway. It costs money to build and maintain the road — that is the grid. It also costs money to buy the fuel that runs on it — that is wholesale power. On top of that, there is a charge for moving electricity from one place to another. All of those pieces show up on a monthly bill.
Paul Beckhusem, senior vice president for American Municipal Power, said some of those costs are simply beyond a local community’s control.
“There’s a number of costs that are associated with the wholesale power cost, that are out of the direct control of the local community. These are market-based cost that increasing due to the fundamentals in the market,” Beckhusem said.
That means even when a town negotiates a competitive deal for power generation, shifts further up the supply chain — such as transmission fees or fluctuating market prices — can still push a monthly bill higher or lower.
What Bedford is doing
McKeon said she was encouraged to hear that Bedford’s municipal utility plans to work directly with residents.
“I like the fact that our local community electric department, Bedford Electric, is going to get into some of those issues individually with different residents,” McKeon said.
Beckhusem said managing those wholesale costs on behalf of member communities remains a top priority.
“We are focused on managing the wholesale power supply cost for our members to keep it economical and reliable for them which relates to the cost that their ultimate customers pay,” Beckhusem said.
Officials laid out what is driving higher rates, explained how rates are set and described what the town is doing to respond. The town plans to post meeting materials and a plain-language explainer online for residents who could not attend.
The bottom line: electric bills are shaped by larger market forces, and small towns like Bedford are working to push back by joining together with other municipalities.