Electric provider in Elk Co?

**03SVTCobra** · February 7th, 2019, 03:26 PM

so i inherited the family house/camp in Ridgway recently and when i took over the place my grandfather had United Electric Coop. so i just continued their service in my name to keep it simple. the latest bill however has me looking for alternatives. they just increased their "service provider" fees (i think that's what they called it) so now the bill is more fees than actual electricity that i'm paying for.... so i was looking to hear who has what provider and if the rates are any better??? what sucks though is my credit took a hit after my divorce and they made me fork over a $600 deposit because of it. which i won't get back until 12 months of on-time payments. i'm about half way there but i'd like to get some options together for when the time comes. thanks

**gghbi** · February 7th, 2019, 03:42 PM

As I understand it, you can choose your electricity generation supplier, but the delivery will always be the local distribution company, so short of generating your own, not much you can do. With that in mind you can ask if you qualify for a different rate schedule that might be better.

**Walleye Hunter** · February 7th, 2019, 04:32 PM

Generally, every electric hookup has a monthly fee regardless of amount of electricity used, even if it's none. Here in PA and at my camp in NY that fee is less than $20/month but it is there and there is nothing I can do about it. Is that the fee you are talking about?

**Parrisk** · February 7th, 2019, 04:41 PM

Camp was out behind Pottersdale.. belonged to my wife and her father.. with advanced age he wanted it sold :-( we didn't have the cash to buy out his half
We used marine batteries hooked to solar charger.. replaced all bulbs with LED.. we had enough elect to run lights and radio for about 1 week.
Normally someone also brought a small Honda generator we ran to keep the fridge cold
Heat was wood
water was off the stream behind camp
No power, no water, no sewer system, no cell service, just fun

**03SVTCobra** · February 8th, 2019, 07:43 AM

Originally Posted by Walleye Hunter

Generally, every electric hookup has a monthly fee regardless of amount of electricity used, even if it's none. Here in PA and at my camp in NY that fee is less than $20/month but it is there and there is nothing I can do about it. Is that the fee you are talking about?

there are several line items, the minimum is one of them but iirc not the same as their service provider fee. i don't have the bill in front of me i'll have to look at it again when i go home. i also pay for an outdoor light that the old guy had them install on the phone pole on the edge of the property. one of those sodium lights. it was about $10/month. it's nice as it lights up the whole yard but that went up too i think it's $12/month now. they just seem to nickel and dime you to death. i had the same issue with the phone company, the fees were more than the actual phone bill so i cancelled it...

Originally Posted by Parrisk

Camp was out behind Pottersdale.. belonged to my wife and her father.. with advanced age he wanted it sold :-( we didn't have the cash to buy out his half
We used marine batteries hooked to solar charger.. replaced all bulbs with LED.. we had enough elect to run lights and radio for about 1 week.
Normally someone also brought a small Honda generator we ran to keep the fridge cold
Heat was wood
water was off the stream behind camp
No power, no water, no sewer system, no cell service, just fun

yeah this place has everything, he lived there full time for 20+ years so it's more of a regular house than a camp even though it's out in the woods. the main heat is the wood staove but we have electric baseboard as secondary. he splurged and got the expensive oil filled ones. i changed all the bulbs to LED. i shut off all 90% of the panel when i leave, shut the well down and drain the lines etc...

**God's Country** · February 8th, 2019, 09:17 AM

I presume United is the local provider, which means you probably don't have much of an alternative. I suppose you can purchase your electricity from anyone, but i don't think you same much if anything, and as stated United will still be the people providing and servicing the camp. Penelec/First Energy is the large provider in this part of the state, FWIW. I think you will find that Ridgway (the city) is likely Penelec, and the outlying areas are United.

**God's Country** · February 8th, 2019, 09:23 AM

You may want to pm member/mod Noah_Zark

I think he lives in that general area. He may be able to offer alternatives.

**slaptrigger** · July 8th, 2023, 10:06 PM

I live not far from ridgway and have west penn power as my provider. I can’t imagine them being cheaper than United electric!! I know what several of my friends who have United pay and obviously what I pay monthly. It’s not an apples to apples comparison but I know they are generally paying quite less if that helps any.