Utility relief available

Some help is available for area residents collapsing under the weight of massive electric bills that landed in mailboxes this month.

Both the Salvation Army and Kingfisher Ministerial Alliance administer utility assistance programs and the city of Kingfisher offers payment plans to help spread out the cost.

Shauna Porter, who staffs the local Salvation Army office in the First United Methodist Church in Kingfisher, said she’s seen a spike in assistance requests after a jump in the Power Cost Adjustment surcharge caused August utility bills to skyrocket.

“I’ve had the most clients in the last month than I’ve ever had in the more than two years I’ve worked here,” Porter said Thursday.

While the Salvation Army’s governing board places limits on how much and how often each household can receive assistance, Porter said there’s some flexibility in those rules.

She urges impacted residents to call or come by to check on their eligibility and not just assume they don’t meet program guidelines.

“If people are in need, they are

[See Assistance, Page 11] in need and we want to help if we can,” she said.

First-time applicants need to bring their utility bill and a photo ID. No proof of income is required, she said.

High utility bills aren’t the only thing driving area residents to her door, Porter said.

“Rental assistance also has been an issue and gasoline also,” she said. “There’s been a lot of requests for everything this summer.”

The local Salvation Army office, located just inside the north door of the First United Methodist Church on South 13th Street, is open from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday.

Kingfisher City Manager Dave Slezickey said he’s also seen an uptick in city electric customers requesting payment plans for August bills.

Payment plans can be set up for anyone contacting the city office before the Sept. 15 due date for August bills, he said.

Slezickey said he also is requesting the city commission (acting as the Kingfisher Public Works Authority) to approve the waiver of late fees for customers who set up payment plans.

An intense and prolonged summer heatwave and soaring natural gas prices combined to nearly double the cost of August utility bills compared to the month before for some ratepayers.

Power Cost Adustment is a surcharge passed on to utility ratepayers each month as the cost to produce electricity fluctuates based primarily on the cost of natural gas, still the primary fuel source utilized.

Since the PCA is set by and originates with the entities that generate electricity, all utility customers are impacted by the pass-through charge, regardless of their providers.

Cimarron Electric Cooperative CEO Aaron Roark explained it this way to coop members at the annual meeting Thursday night in Kingfisher: “The power cost portion of your bill fluctuates with cost of the fuel that runs to the power plants generating our power.

“You’ve all seen what’s happened to fuel prices this year. Natural gas prices are up 106% and the high temperatures this summer have caused our average residential usage to increase by 25%.

“The combination of the higher usage and the higher fuel costs are the cause of increased bills for many of our members.”

Kingfisher electric customers receive their power through the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, which derives its electricity from a variety of sources which also include wind, hydro-electric and coal.

But the majority of it still comes from natural gas-powered plants.

Slezickey said OMPA is making additional efforts to diversify its power sources, but not soon enough to insulate its customers from the summer’s natural gas price spikes.

“OMPA just signed contracts for a 120- megawatt solar farm to be built between Altus and Frederick, which should be online by summer of 2024,” he said.

“That would’ve helped greatly this summer, but we started this venture in 2020 and it has been delayed due to circumstances beyond our control.”

For energy-rich Kingfisher County, rising natural gas prices aren’t bad news for everyone and local oil and gas producer Steve Altman is challenging those benefi ting from price surges to help their neighbors who are hurting.

“There are a lot of people in Kingfisher that are on the other end of this high gas price situation (like me) – mainly oil companies and royalty owners,” Altman wrote in an email to the Times & Free Press on Sept. 3. “Maybe we can step up to the plate to help?”

Since that email, Altman has been calling on others in the industry to do just that.

Porter said that Salvation Army donations made through her local office are spent entirely in Kingfisher County. She’s waiting for confirmation as to whether donations can be designated for a specific program such as utility assistance.

Donations also can be made to the local ministerial alliance.

Watch future editions for more details on donation opportunities.

The high cost of electricity production is not expected to ease over the winter months.