Notice to Municipal Commission Customers

The Municipal Commission of Boonville, to keep our customers as informed as possible, would like to discuss briefly winter billings.  One major issue these days on social media seems to be regarding utility costs, particularly in New York.  The historic high utility costs are real with little to no relief in sight. Growing demand coupled with the transmission congestion, lack of power generation, extremely cold weather, and costs associated with Green Energy all contribute to these unprecedented rates.

Monthly, our customers receive 13.3 megawatts of hydro electric power from the New York Power Authority Niagara Project at a price which is locked in by contract.  In the winter months our system uses anywhere from 18 to 25+ megawatts of power.  As a member of NYMPA (New York Municipal Power Agency) we hedge  (buy in advance) power to help cover these increased winter loads.  Unfortunately, this supplemental power comes at a price much higher than our allocated hydro power.  On each bill our customers see a line item labeled PPAC (Purchase Power Adjustment Clause).  Included in this portion of the billing is the required power that was purchased during the last billing cycle to offset total system usage.  The Municipal Commission of Boonville does not know what the cost of this power will be prior to our system using it. 

January 2026’s extreme cold has driven supplemental power costs in New York to record high prices.  These record high prices will negatively impact our customers’ monthly bills. As a system, our Feb 1st billing was higher than in previous years.  The current prices and cold weather won’t reflect on customers’ bills until the March 1st billing but we advise all customers to be prepared.  The Municipal Commission of Boonville does not increase our rates to customers in the winter (as always, customers who use more than 2000kwh per month are charged a higher rate for each kilowatt used over 2000kwh), nor do we dictate the price of purchased power. The Commission has not changed our rates since 2024.   Our customers are billed only for the power they consume.  Keeping utility costs low is our major goal, these historically high prices are extremely concerning to us as well. 

We encourage all customers to reduce consumption, seek programs to help with insulating your home or upgrading of heating sources, and pursue nonelectric heating sources as an alternative if possible.  The Municipal Commission of Boonville compared to major utilities (National Grid, NYSEG, RG&E, and CONED) is still among the cheapest power in New York with an average cost of 1/3  to1/2 that of other utilities.  New Yorks current power prices are as alarming to us as they are our customers. The Municipal Commission of Boonville is not a major corporation. We operate as a non-profit and any revenues generated go directly back into the system.  Our sole purpose is to best serve our customers with all their electrical needs. We also feel the impact of utility costs and will continue to work towards New York resolving these energy issues which continue to have an impact on us all.