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At Central Missouri Electric Cooperative, we are a not-for-profit, member-owned cooperative that strives to provide safe, reliable, and affordable electrical service. We work to operate at the lowest possible cost with any profits earned being returned to our member-owners.

Bill Description

While this change had minimal impact to bills, it provided improved transparency of the cost to serve each member. Your electric cooperative pays a power bill to our G&T cooperative which includes a kW demand charge. About 23% of your electric bill goes to cover that G&T demand charge. Another 27% of your electric bill goes to pay for demand costs associated with distribution infrastructure necessary to serve your site. Your electric cooperative saves a little bit from that demand expense when you set lower kW demands. So, this rate change allowed your electric cooperative to provide some of that savings back to you on those months.

Spreading the use of an appliance or two (like the dishwasher) outside of the time when using other appliances. If this is convenient for you to do, you can likely take advantage and decrease your max kW demand resulting in a decrease to your power bills. If it's convenient for you on some months and not others, don't sweat it! We have the power you need when you need it, and these demand rates were designed to minimize cost increases to you on those months.

Sure! Most members set their peak kW demand in the morning or evening. If you have something like a dishwasher that is convenient to run at a different time, just make the switch to running that outside those busy times. If you're worried about accidentally setting a higher kW demand outside those busy times due to this change, don't worry. We've got your back! All residential demands set outside of the morning hours of 6-9 a.m. and the evening hours of 4-8 p.m. are waived. That way members who choose to make such changes don't have to worry that they might have a set a new kW demand outside of busy times. This further ensures that savings you provide the membership comes back to you.

Imagine turning on 1,000 watts (1 kW) of lights. If you run those lights for one hour, and run nothing else for the rest on the month, then your electric bill will include 1 kWh for the energy to run those lights. That 1 kWh during that one hour is also your residential kW demand.

If you run those same lights for 100 hours next month and run nothing else, then your next electric bill will include 100 kWh for the energy to run those 1kW lights for 100 hours. Since you didn't need more that 1 kW PER hour of running those lights, your residential kW demand is still just 1 kW.

Here's a water analogy that might help. Let's say you need to fill a 100-gallon stock tank. Instead of water, let's assume we're filling that stock tank with crystal clear energy. Instead of measuring gallons, we're measuring kWh. You could install a 10 kWh per-hour pump that would fill that tank in 10 hours (10 kWh/hour x 10 hours = 100 kWh). Or you could install a 100 kWh per-hour pump that would take one hour to fill that tank (100 kWh/hour x 1 hour = 100 kWh). You'll fill the tank with 100 kWh of crystal clear energy either way, but the bigger pump will put a higher demand on your well and pipes...er' uh...energy system to run. It will set a 100 kW demand. The smaller pump will only set a 10 kW demand.

No, demand billing is not kWh energy time-of-use billing. Evergy's kWh time-of-use billing changes the rate paid per kWh at various times of the day, often with higher rates at peak times and lower rates at off-peak times. On the other hand, residential kW demand is simply the maximum power needed in an hour to power your home or site; the cooperative's kWh rates do NOT change with time of day.

If you are interested, we'd be glad to run your usage through our calculator, and provide you with your estimate demand. Just give us a call at 660-826-2900, weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.

If you'd like to play with a non-specific demand calculator and what different appliances could save you money by using outside your busiest times, click here.

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Why did the cooperative implement demand charges?

Does demand hurt lower-income members with less efficient homes?

How can I take advantage of demand to save on my electric bill?

Do you have any additional advice on how I could use demand to save money?

What is the difference between monthly kWh and residential kW demand?

Can you give me an example to help me understand kWh and residential kW demand?

I heard about Evergy's time-of-use billing. Is CMEC's the same?

What other resources can you give me to understand this?

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