LAKE PLACID — Some village residents are seeing much higher charges when they open their electricity bills this month as colder weather and inflation of natural gas prices raise the demand and cost of power.

Utility customers will see the price increase in the form of a PPA, or purchased power adjustment charge, on their bill. This charge means utility customers in the village collectively used more power than the village purchased for that particular billing cycle. Additional power purchased by the village shows up on an electric bill as a separate, and often more expensive than usual, PPA charge.

The reason for the costly PPA charge on this month’s bill, according to village Treasurer Mindy Goddeau, is the increased demand for power because of the cold weather, plus the climbing prices for natural gas.

Lake Placid customers likely aren’t the only ones hit with this charge, according to Goddeau. She said that Plattsburgh and Tupper Lake, which have similar power agreements throught the New York Power Authority, are seeing higher bills, too.

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Statewide increases

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Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office on Tuesday warned New York power customers about the rising cost of energy, saying that energy rates are rising sharply enough to sometimes double a customer’s power bill. The governor’s office said that recent statewide electricity bill increases are caused by increased economic activity, increased global demand for natural gas and higher gas prices due to more usage, triggered by cold temperatures.

The NYPA mostly deals in hydropower and natural gas. The village sources its power from the NYPA, which purchases an allotment of power for the village at a particular rate. When the village uses its allotted power for the month, NYPA has to purchase additional power for the village from the open market. Goddeau said the village hasn’t had to buy much more power this year than it did last year — the village bought 23 million kilowatt hours of power last January, which increased this January to 26 million — but she said the price per kilowatt has increased substantially since last year. The village was paying around 2 cents per kilowatt last January, and the village paid closer to 10 cents this January. That’s around a $958,000 difference, according to Goddeau.

Goddeau added that the number of days below 20 degrees fahrenheit this year has grown: she said there were 10 days below 20 degrees last year, while this year has already had 23 days below 20 degrees. Thirteen of those days were below zero. Goddeau said that if it’s 30 degrees outside and your thermostat is set to 65, the heat won’t kick on nearly as often as when it’s zero degrees outside and your thermostat is set to 65. People who aren’t changing their heating habits could still see an increase in their electric bills because their heaters are using more energy trying to keep up with the cold weather.

“The weather really drives how much we purchase,” she said.

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Whose power?

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Goddeau said that residential and small commercial customers were the primary customers that pushed up the amount of power purchased by the village this past month. Small commercial customers are commercial property owners who use less than 5,000 kilowatt hours per month — like a library or a nail salon, Goddeau said. Small commercial and residential customers pay a different rate for electricity than large commercial customers using more than 5,000 kilowatt hours per month, which pay a base rate for power in addition to a demand rate of $6 per kilowatt.

Goddeau said that some residents have questioned whether the recently-improved state Olympic Regional Development Authority facilities are driving up the demand for power, and she said that isn’t the case.

“Their usage is actually less because they did all of those improvements,” she said, “so they actually used less energy (this year) than they did last year.”

Others have questioned whether or not the increased presence of short-term vacation rentals in the area has hiked up power demand, to which Goddeau says, “I don’t think that makes a difference at all.”

She said that whether someone rents out a home or lives in the home, it’s still occupied.

“It doesn’t matter who the house is inhabited by, it’s still inhabited,” she said.

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Financial help

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Goddeau said the village sometimes puts text notices to customers on a portion of village electric bills. She said the village considered using that space this month to explain why the electric bills are so high, but the village opted to let people know that it will resume shutting off services for customers who haven’t made a payment in three months. Goddeau said the village hasn’t been able to shut off services in two years — since the pandemic triggered statewide restrictions on utility shutoffs — and she thought people who haven’t made a payment in a while, around 200 of the village’s customers, could use the notice in advance. Goddeau said that if another drastic price increase in electricity bills happens, the village would be sure to put a notice out ahead of the bills.

For anyone struggling with their current electricity bill or people who are behind on payments, Goddeau said to come into the town hall and make a payment arrangement to pay the fees in increments. She said the incremental amount could divide the outstanding charge evenly over a certain amount of months, giving four to six months as an example, and she said that amount would be added to the customer’s monthly electricity bill.

“We’re willing to work with anybody,” Goddeau said. “We don’t want to shut people off, we don’t want people to be in a situation where it’s rent or their electric bill. … We have no problem working with our customers, all they have to do is call.”

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CORRECTION: A previous version of this story failed to distinguish between kilowatts and kilowatt-hours; all mentions of kilowatts, the measure of electric power in a given instant, were actually in reference to kilowatt-hours, or the measure of energy use over time. The Enterprise regrets the error.