MAJOR fee increases on the horizon
 

SECO is increasing the pole rental fees which will drive higher fees to live in The Villages

Not a big deal, everything has gone up over the last 3 years.

600%?

Plus utilities are regulated regarding their fees

Just a question are these fees for lamp poles and or for utility power poles for transmission of electricity. Are we paying for lighting in squares commercial properties/parking lots? Tunnel, Village area signs such as courtyard villas are provided by solar, maybe it's times for conversion. Each home is required to have a lamp post (why) I already converted mine to solar.

Fee increase is for pylon (transmission tower in US?) rental.

I saw light poles. Where did you see different?

Does SECO even own any transmission towers?

So, I guess our electric utility rates in the Villages will only be about 3/4 of what we pay in Massachusetts, instead of about half as much. Still a dam good deal on a relative basis.

Agreed. What is a problem is all of the hidden taxes. Things not even called taxes that amortize a budget to nothing. Record home insurance bills, bonds that exceed in some cases 50 k dollars. The payments aren’t labeled taxes, but many pay them.

Why does this apply to only 62,000 households in TV?

SECO is much more affordable than Duke Power. I am not sure how they determine utility boundaries but I am in unincorporated Sumter county and am in the Duke service area. I see SECO trucks working two blocks over. Anyone want to trade?

Source?

Newspaper that cannot be named plus conversation in one of the District or Committee meetings (can’t remember which one).

Doesn’t automatically equate to maintenance fee increase but will have to be built into the budget somehow.

Don’t want Florida to become the state you left???:shrug: I’m sure you don’t but some do:beer3:

Wait till after I get bill for pole rental increase.

What deal get utility to install poles and pay rent for couple years then dump it on residents when the paid bond for infrastructure. :boom:

Trying to understand what MAJOR means.

The Lord Voldemort news article doesn't make sense?

Looks like it's for the light poles @ less than $1/day/pole (?)

We have about 10/100 homes around me.

A $2 million increase over 240,000 homes is $8/home?

SECO Energy Announces Increase in Lighting Rates – SECO Energy

https://secoenergy.com/wp-content/up...ff_Current.pdf

No idea if/what we're paying now?

And I'm probably way off base...

My bad. Poles not pylons.
Below from 'other place.'


Community Development Districts in The Villages will be burning through reserves to pay for huge SECO Energy increases.

The SECO Energy pole rental cost in Community Development District 5 will climb from $60,249 to $435,423 as of Oct. 1 – a 623 percent increase.

“How can SECO Energy have the unmitigated nerve to propose such a ridiculous increase?” asked CDD 5 Board of Supervisors Chairman Gary Kadow. “They look at The Villages like a cash cow. They think they can charge anything and we will just pay it.”

Other CDDs are feeling the pain, with the more than $2 million SECO increase to be absorbed over a large swath of The Villages.

“We really need to get after these folks,” said Community Development District 8 Supervisor Duane Johnson.

CDD 8 will see its SECO costs increase from $54,108 to $329,569.

CDD supervisors from The Villages have been invited to a special meeting with SECO representatives on Tuesday at SECO headquarters in Sumterville. The meeting is not open to the public and supervisors who plan to attend the meeting must RSVP to guarantee entry.

SECO representatives had been invited to attend CDD meetings this week in The Villages, but did not attend.

The Villages District Manager Kenny Blocker will hold a closed door meeting Monday with SECO executives.

The CDDs are already deep into planning for the 2024-2025 fiscal budgets. All have agreed they will have to reach into their reserve funding to pay for the SECO increases.

CDD 6 Supervisor Peter Moeller noted that while CDDs can avoid a maintenance assessment hike this time around, residents should not shrug off the pain of the sudden SECO increase. He said there is “shadow” lurking over the financial future of the CDDs.
Want all the latest news from The Villages delivered directly to your email inbox? Click here to subscribe! Hurry and lock in your price now before rates increase in 2024

I’d just drop rental, tell them to remove polls! Why we have yard lights, flashlights, and headlights. Bet they would reconsider?

Ok, $375,074 spread scross 240,000 homes is a MAJOR increase of $1.56 per home.

I have no dog in the fight. Poster asked for conformation, so I responded.

"Other CCDs are feeling the pain, with the more than $2 million SECO increase to be absorbed over a large swath of The Villages."

Doubt if the poles were part of Infrastructure bond.

CDD 10 is large with 6,600 homes. If CDD5 had 6,000 then the cost per home would be what, about $63? Not a lot overall but a large jump in the maintenance fee.

Your math is off.

The $375,000 increase is for CDD 5 only. Other districts will also see similar increases.

There are 6,399 homes in CDD 5. So that works out to $58.61 per house added to the annual maintenance fee that is on your tax bill.

This alone is annoying, but not hurtful. However, what other increases will we also see in the maintenance budget?

What does the rental fee include? Is the electricity included? If a pole gets knocked down does SECO replace it? Do they service the bulbs or LEDs? Never heard of street pole rental.

Thanks for the clarification.

Seems like a lot of drama over a buck per week per household.

First off, there aren't 240,000 homes in The Villages. So either that number is off, or the entire customer base in AND outside The Villages are all sharing the cost.

Second, it's not all residents of The Villages. People living on my side of the pond have Duke Energy, and our costs are unaffected. Seco doesn't service this side at all.

Third, yes investor-owned utilities are regulated. But SECO is a co-op. The FPSC does not fully regulate co-ops or municipal energy companies.

Yes, you have Duke Energy in your home, not SECO.

But we are not talking about the power in your home. We are talking about the light poles in the streets and parking lots.

I don't know if SECO owns the poles throughout the Villages, or if some other entity owns in some sections. Since all the CDD's seem to be involved, it suggests that SECO has the contract for all the light poles.

I know that SECO replaces any burned out lights on the poles. I think they also maintain any damaged poles as part of the rental contract.

Who pays the electric bill? Is that included?

There are only 6,408 lots in District 5

Thanks for the info.

I read the 240K as all customers but am probably very confused...

I think I read in the rate sheet they will also start billing for repairs?

Not true as they are a Cooperative.

If that is true than this makes no sense at all. If rental includes maintenance ( repair as well ) than I would have no beef given how costs of materials and labor have risen. But to have such a high percentage increase without including maintenance (??), why that’s highway robbery. Some justification would be needed

Getting factual information is useful
SECO Announcement - what the poles are and why the increase and comparison to other communities
Report of meeting Reaction in TV - (abbreviated to avoid the silly little magnifying glasses that otherwise are magically added to posts)
Reaction reported on CDD7

Please feel free to reply to this with other factual resources to make it easy for people to read all the facts before making comments or supplying false information without factual knowledge.

Doing division is useful, if and only if the both the numerator and denominator are correct. Otherwise it is just 4th grade (?) arithmetic.

ALL Utility companies are guarantied about a fixed return on ASSETS by federal statute.

If the utility company adds assets to benefit the customer, as required by the regulator, the rates will go up.
If the cost of maintenance goes up, the rates will go up.
All interruptions in service are recorded and timed from outage to restoration. Depending upon the storm level, excess times are fined.
All customer inbound service telephone calls are time recorded, there are requirements to answer and provide solutions. depending upon the issues, the company can be fined for poor customer service.
The cost of storm damage is recorded and collected separately and billed recovery over a future time period, not all at once.
The cost of repairing a car damaged telephone pole is recorded and the damaged asset removed and the new pole cost added to the assets for rate recovery. .


If the regulator denies the increase in rates, the utility will sue in federal court and win per the statute.

Each state has different rate setting rules, ie:
NY State allows rate increases to prepay for the investment in assets
MA State only gives rate increases AFTER the asset is in service (the utility has to borrow to make the investment, thereby increasing the cost of the investment)

There is a formula for rates which includes the cost of maintenance.

Utility ratemaking - Wikipedia.

Revenue Requirement formula
The traditional rate formula is intended to produce a utility's revenue requirement:

R = O + (V − D)r
The elements of the traditional rate formula are defined as:

R is the utility's total revenue requirement or rate level. This is the total amount of money a regulator allows a utility to collect from customers.
O is the utility's operating expenses, which are passed through to customers at cost with no mark-up. Examples include labor (for everything from field repair and maintenance crews to customer service and accounting personnel); bad debt expense; interest on debt; depreciation on assets; and federal (and sometimes state) taxes on income. A large operating expense is often the cost of the commodity itself (electricity, or natural gas, or water) purchased by a utility for its customers' use.
V is the gross value of the utility's tangible and intangible property.
D is the utility's accrued depreciation. Combined (V − D) constitute the utility's rate base, also known as its capital investment. Examples include wires, pipes, poles, substations, pumping stations, generating stations, computer software, computer hardware, office furniture, office buildings, etc.
r is the rate of return a for-profit utility is allowed to earn on its capital investment or on its rate base. Non-profit utilities, such as those owned by states or municipalities, or those owned by customers in rural areas (common in the United States) do not add an "r" in the Revenue Requirement formula, nor do they incur income tax expenses.


Progress and population expansion is not free, never has been never will be.
We are living in a developing area, unlike the old parts of the country, where there is no land left.

now enough with the rate increase hysterics. . .

& this is why these are great stock investments, which i include in my "bond investment" category.

:mornincoffee:

Links don't work on this end?

If you can find the correct numbers to put in the numerator and denominator to calculate the increase per rooftop, go for it.

Thank you for explaining this so clearly and factually!

SECO is not a regulated utility (2nd paragraph)

There is no development occurring in CDD5, CDD7, or CDD10. Costs for maintenance and improvement make sense, 600% increases do not.

When Xfinity replaces your modem and increases your $50 internet over $300 you will want to know why and I am willing to be that "supply chain issues" will not be an acceptable answer.

It is not unreasonable to ask how such a large increase was necessary and to demand that the answer be backed up by numbers. Hopefully, our CDD supervisors were provided that information in the closed-door meeting. I am looking forward to that information being published or discussed in an upcoming CDD meeting.

Not many facts in that announcement, only a mention of a substantial increase. No good reason why (supply chain issues) and no idea of the magnitude (substantial), just a statement that we (SECO) are really good guys and we're about to start charging you more.


(NOTE: This forum does not allow you to link to the online paper that shall not be named)