City of Alachua announces lowest electric rates in the state
Press release from City of Alachua
ALACHUA, Fla. – For years, the City has prioritized supporting our community by offering low-cost, affordable power that is also reliable and sustainable. We are committed to building a stronger, smarter, and more sustainable grid on which community members can count.
As evidence of such efforts, the City was recognized through a rate study conducted by the Florida Municipal Electric Association (FMEA). It confirmed that the City of Alachua provides the lowest-cost power across Florida, based on residential bill comparisons between February 2023 and February 2024.
Reliable service
Having reliable electricity is essential, just like having affordable power. We understand how much you depend on your electric service. Customers want their house to be cool when it’s hot outside, and they need electricity to power the essentials of their everyday life. When you flip the switch, you expect the light to come on. We agree.
That’s why we are committed to building a stronger, smarter grid to deliver electricity you can count on in good weather and bad. Our team works year-round to enhance your service and deploy innovative solutions that benefit you every day. When outages do occur, these improvements help us restore your power faster.
Here are some of the ways we are strengthen the system:
- Power Pole Inspections
Continuously inspect all power poles and replace those that don’t meet our standards for strength. - Vegetation Management
Proactively review and trim vegetation near power to prevent outages caused by tree limbs. - Strengthening main power lines
Actively convert wood poles to concrete and transitioning main power line from over overhead to underground.
These investments are paying off for our customers, and we remain dedicated to providing you with the best service possible.
Sustainable Energy Solutions
Many customers today want clean energy, as long as electricity stays affordable and reliable. The City looks for clean energy opportunities.
Our Florida sun is what makes Alachua such a beautiful place to live, work, and play. We are committed to keeping it that way by advancing the use of solar energy in our community. We are making the most of Florida’s sunshine, turning it into clean energy and using it to power your home or business. The City is looking into and evaluating solar opportunities for a stable fuel source that results in more stable bills and future savings that benefit everyone.
It is amazing what good management and leadership can do when they are smart enough to have power producers competing to supply the city’s power. This all-started years ago with a very smart City Manager and has been continued today with the current City Manager. The Service Director has also been a great asset to the City and the utilities provided. This is all capped off by past and current Commissions who have made very smart decisions and hiring great folks to help make Alachua great.
Great comment, thanks for the background
It’s amazing what a city own electric company can do when they don’t try to make the homeless feel they belong or other stupid ideas the idiot mayor and Gainesville city council have or pay people in their administration 6 figures a year
As the back-Ward Mayor of Gainesville I continue the work that my mentor Mayor ‘make you” Poe started and I will keep electric rates high. I do see from the chart that there is some work to do because there is actually one city that has higher rates than Gainesville. I vow to all the commoners that I rule over, that Gainesville will have the highest electric rates in the state along with our property taxes. I don’t understand why the leadership of Alachua is so concerned about the people who live there and working to keep money in the pockets of the residents. The way I see it, if the people have money in their pockets than there is more money for me to take and waste.
They add a 10% tax onto the sale of electricity, water, sewer so the rate looks cheap.
My March 18 bill has an electric utility tax and a gross receipts tax, same as GRU.
There is a power cost adjustment that is actually NEGATIVE on the Alachua bill – it REDUCES the electricity charge by 18.7%, making the effective rate lower than the published rate.
There is no 10% charge other than the taxes mentioned above, which are standard.
Agreed!
Does Alachua get power from GRU? If so, what rate are they paying?
I think they buy their power wholesale from electric companies.
My understanding is that for years we purchased exclusively from GRU but in recent years we now purchase some from GRU but also buy from other providers. Someone on here should be able to confirm this or set me straight if I am way off base.
No they don’t.
According to this article they do:
https://www.mainstreetdailynews.com/news/alachua-approves-two-power-contracts_id_4be14084-ef0e-11eb-89b3-bbae323a8fcf
Gainesville is one of the hightest. We were one of the lowest until a City Commission ignored expert advice and opted for an expensive bioplant. May our current City Commission make sensible decisions, not outliers.
Thank Goodness the City Commissioners have been fired and removed from governing GRU. It may be too late to salvage GRU but the monkey math could not continue.
That is correct. We were also one of the best municipal utilities in America. The decline began with pegeen.
Since cooperatives and other non-producing utilities are lower cost, we should look into that for Gainesville. Similar to grocery “store brands”, they buy products wholesale from the same private producers, and then resell them cheaper than “name brands”.
The other big area to tackle is the Climate Doomsday Cult responsible for wrecking America’s power grid (and auto industry). Just look at California and Texas, where they put politics ahead of energy common sense. Then they suffer brownouts and blackouts, and then costly retrofitted upgrades anyway. 👹💩🤡👿👺
GRU buys and sells institutional power at 2 cents per kw. sells at 16 cents to retail consumers
My Clay Electric bill has 12 lines of charges on it. 3 are for the actual electricity. About 16 cents a KW including all charges. High Springs.
I live in Alachua and the funny thing is that we buy some of our power from GRU as well as subcontract some of the physical work to them yet our rates are WAAY lower than GRUs.
GRU is an example of what happens when you inject politics into running a utility and use it as a piggy bank and slush fund.
Interesting story. Alachua City adds a 10% tax ONTO electric bills, how do they stack up then? Still cheapest. Figures lie and liars figure. What is the true “tale of the tape?”
Looks like if you add 10% to their figure on the graph they’d be about 9th lowest in the state, assuming none of the others below them did the same with a surcharge as well. Happy to be corrected though.
Everyone seems to have a surcharge that is not included in the stated rate.
“The City of Gainesville, Alachua County, and the City of Alachua all levy a 10% utility tax on electric, gas, and water charges. These tax revenues are passed directly to the levying authority.”
https://www.fa.ufl.edu/directives/city-utility-tax/#:~:text=The%20City%20of%20Gainesville%2C%20Alachua,directly%20to%20the%20levying%20authority.
I seem to recall that Alachua buys much of their electricity from GRU. How can this be? Are we subsidizing the Alachua electric rates with our GRU bills?
Proof is in the GRU/GCC pudding….