Transformer cost gives Bayview buyer a shock

A North Idaho woman is wondering why a local power company is making her pay almost $3,000 for a transformer to provide electricity to her new construction in a small Bayview subdivision.

The power company contends her purchase is the cost of hooking into the system for the first time. Neighbors who have lived for years on the street can’t remember if they paid for equipment when they joined the electrical co-op.

In an advertisement, Kootenai Electric tells consumers that their monthly payments subsidize the costs of equipment, according to Deborah Hotard of Hayden, who got the $5,300 bill from the electric company for hooking up to the system.

She wondered why she was being charged $2,757 for a transformer. Her property is the final lot to be developed on East Duwamish Drive, a 12-home subdivision overlooking Lake Pend Oreille at Bayview’s Cape Horn.

“I’m the last person to build on the street and the person I talked to didn’t pay for a transformer and I doubt if anyone else did,” said Hotard, a retired nurse who is living in a rental unit in Hayden until her Bayview home is completed in May.

Although she has temporary service at the lot for contractors to use, an electrician is slated to begin working soon on her new property. She needs to get permanent service from Kootenai Electric at the site.

One of her neighbors who has lived on the street for a long time paid a fraction of the cost for a hookup that Hotard is being charged, she said.

“We paid $500 to (Kootenai Electric) in 1993,” neighbor Cindy Hansen wrote in an email. “(Another neighbor) doesn’t remember paying for a transformer. He said that he was within the required distance for the minimal hookup fee. He couldn’t recall the amount.”

The fixed cost of providing services to a home is $39 per month, according to a Kootenai Electric advertisement.

“These fixed costs are incurred as the cooperative purchases all of the items below (and more) on behalf of each member,” according to the advertisement.

Jessie Holderman, a Kootenai Electric engineering supervisor, said new members are expected to make an investment into the system.

“As a member-owned electric cooperative, we require the member to make the initial investment specific to their KEC service,” Holderman said in a letter to Hotard. “This ensures existing members do not subsidize new development. KEC then provides all maintenance and replacement for the life of the service.”

Service is specially designed for each new construction project, Holderman said.

“This project has been designed to KEC standards and the costs follow our standard practices for all new members,” he said.

Hotard, however, believes that by paying for the transformer, she is subsidizing other power users.

She wants the power company to prove to her that she’s not the only customer to pay for a transformer.

“I think Kootenai Electric is very much in the wrong here,” she said. “I’m not going to let this go away because I think it’s wrong.”