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Every once in a while, customers contact us because they believe their meter isn't working properly, or because they aren't sure they used the amount of electricity noted on their statement. When you contact us, we look at several areas in order to decide if something is wrong. First, if something is wrong with your meter, it is almost always going to rotate slower (not faster). But, primarily we discover that a customer has received an estimated billing because he/she did not send in a meter reading (on time). At that point, the usage has "caught up" and the energy reflected is generally higher than the previous month. A significant jump in usage is almost always attributable to an estimated reading. Knowing how much electricity appliances use also helps. In our electric appliance link, you can look at the usage values and add up a typical day in order to see what your "average" bill may be. In general terms, it is not unusual for a family of four in an all-electric home to use between 70 and 80 kilowatt hours a day (about $4.50). Not bad considering lunch will cost that for one person. So, $4.50 x 30 days = $135.00. Again, this is in general terms, your lifestyle, home type, insulation values, and outside weather temperature(s) will all affect usage. In the summer months of June, July, August and September, the energy charge per kilowatt-hour will increase. As temperatures rise, so does consumption, which increases your bill. There is nothing typical about usage and everyone's usage varies from day to day and family to family. Please try not to compare your statement with your family or friends. There is no way to estimate incidental use such as turning a light on for only a moment, but your meter will total the accumulation of all of this type of use. This guide was developed to help our customers check their electricity use. | Top
of Page | Usage Calculations
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of Page | Billing StatementRegardless of the type of service you have whether it is residential, seasonal, commercial or irrigation, all accounts with an outstanding balance are due upon receipt. When you receive a statement from Polk County RPPD, it will be an itemized statement as indicated in the example below. This general layout of the statement will be the same for all customers.
These statements not only indicate important information about billing and payment, but also contain valuable information you can give district employees when reporting an outage or trouble at your service. Your name, account and meter number in addition to the legal description are very important to us when you contact the office to report any trouble or general business transactions. | Top
of Page | Security DepositsPolk County RPPD requires that all new customers or existing customers who request that a service be changed to another name will sign and notarize an "Agreement for Service". Customers who have not yet obtained a good credit rating with PCRPPD will be required to pay a Security Deposit. New PCRPPD customers will go through a credit check to determine if a deposit is needed or not. A deposit may also be required if a customer has previously had service which was disconnected for non-payment.
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of Page | Meter Reading Submission FormSimply fill in the information and click on the submit button at the bottom. Your account number can be found on the monthly statement. You will receive a confirmation message back once our system receives this information.
Meter Reading (Rural Customers) Each rural customer must read their meter between the first and the tenth of each month. The meter reading and date read is to be recorded under your payment amount on your payment stub and returned with the payment. Also, customers who are using automatic bank withdrawal to make their payments must submit a meter reading, as this determines the next billing amount. It is very important to read your meter and submit the reading to the office each month. This makes for more consistent billing amounts each month. If a meter reading is estimated for two consecutive months, a lineman will read the meter on the third month and a $10 charge will be assessed. Meter Reading (Town Customers) As in the past, district meters for customers in the towns of Clarks, Silver Creek, Osceola, and Shelby, will be read by a district employee and billed accordingly. The meters for the village water billing will also be read by a district employee. | Top
of Page | Billing FeesAll customers will receive a statement for each service listed in their name. As noted on the bill, each service has a due date and the date will differ depending on the billing cycle for each individual service. Penalties will be assessed at the rate of 1.5% per month on any unpaid account balances, and disconnects will be sent to the customer for each unpaid account balance. The disconnect will have a final date for payment, before being disconnected. If the account balance is not paid or the customer has not notified the office to make payment arrangements, a lineman will be sent to disconnect the service. If the lineman is able to collect on a disconnect, a $20.00 collection fee will be charged. If the service is disconnected for non-payment, a $40.00 connection fee will be charged. The reconnection fee and any account balance should be paid in full prior to restoration of service. If the customer does not have a deposit with the District and service is disconnected for non-payment, a deposit, reconnection fee and the account balance will be required prior to restoration of service. Non-sufficient fund checks will be charged $10.00 per return. | Top
of Page | Billing & Payment OptionsPayments may be made by sending in a check, money order, bankdraft or credit card. All checks will be electronically processed. Funds maybe withdrawn from your account the same day as we receive your payments and the checks are no longer returned to your bank, but destroyed on site. If you do not want your payment electronically processed, payments will need to be cash, money order, or by issuing an on-line or in person credit card. When we use information from your check to make an electroinc funds transfer, funds may be withdrawn from your account the same day we receive your payment, and you will not receive your check back from your financial institution. Credit card payments work well for some customers. We accept VISA, Mastercard, Discover and American Express. You may contact the office with the necessary information or complete the credit card information on your statement and send it back with the meter reading or, you can pay online. We respect your privacy, see our: Right to Privacy Policy. Automatic bank payment is a very attractive means of payment preferred by many customers. All we need is a signed bankdraft form and a voided check to set the account up. This works very well for customers who travel a lot (ex: truck drivers and customers that go south for the winter). Payments will be taken out of your account automatically on the 10th or 25th of each month. If one of these days would fall on a holiday or weekend; your payment will be processed the next business day. Drop box centers are located at the main office (120 W 4th Street) in Stromsburg and in each of the communities of Clarks, Osceola, Shelby and Silver Creek. Please do not put cash in these boxes. Payments are collected from the boxes on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and everyday in Stromsburg. If you receive a disconnect notice and are nearing the shut off day, when you place your payment in the box, please call and inform us of this payment. Interruption of service and additional fees may be avoided by a simple phone call. Regardless of the type of payment plan you prefer to use, monthly meter readings are a requirement. Meter readings may be submitted online: Meter Reading Form. Monthly residential customers who have at least twelve months history with the District are eligible for budget billing. A monthly budget amount will be figured based on the previous twelve months consumption. Budget billing evens out payments through a high peak in summer and low valley in winter. If you reside in a rental property, the budget billing plan must be approved by the landlord per district policy. | Top
of Page | Right to Privacy PolicyPolk County Rural Public Power District Privacy Policy We respect your privacy. In utilizing this service you may provide Polk County Rural Public Power District personal information. Such information only will be used in the manner herein described. Polk County RPPD will not sell a user's personal information to third parties for any purpose. We will disclose information to third parties about your account or the transactions you make only:
Polk County RPPD may aggregate information on our entire customer base for analysis purposes, but a user's individual personal information will never be sold or provided to any party except as provided above. If you visit our site, we may automatically collect and store the following information:
This information is used by our software programs on our Web site to create summary statistics that allow us to assess the number of visitors, determine technical design specifications, monitor system performance, and help us make our site more useful to customers. When necessary, information provided to Polk County RPPD through this site will be encrypted using Secure Socket Layer (SSL). | Top
of Page | Polk County Rural
Public Power District Phone:
(402) 764-4381 Business Hours:
8 am to 5 pm   .
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| COPYRIGHT
© 2008 POLK COUNTY RURAL PUBLIC POWER DISTRICT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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