ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The cost of electricity is top of mind for some New Yorkers this summer. For others, not much has changed. Municipal electric customers, often in villages, receive a consistently lower cost for electric.

“Here’s my $73 bill from last month. It was great,” Spencertport village resident Doug McPherson showed. “Everything here is electric, from our electric heat pump, to our electric hot water tank, everything to our stoves and oven.”

What You Need To Know

  • The idea of municipal electricity came from villages of New York looking to be more self-sufficient for their residents

  • There are roughly 3,200 village of Spencerport residents who save money from its municipal electric

  • The village of Spencerport joined the Municipal Electric Utilities Association of the State of New York in the 1940s, and there are 40 communities involved today

  • Mayor Gary Penders says Village Electric is roughly four to five cents a kilowatt for village residents because the energy comes in from the Robert Moses Power Plant in Niagara Falls

  • Resident Doug McPherson says village homes tend to cost a bit more, but it’s worth it because services like garbage, sewage, electric and more are included in the property tax

The idea of municipal electric stems from villages historically building to be self-sufficient.

“Back in the day, the intent of villages were to provide all the services themselves to the residents. And that’s the whole idea of villages in New York State,” village of Spencerport Mayor Gary Penders explained. “The village wanted to be self-supporting, and that was just one of the services that we provided to the residents that they wanted to include back then, just to have some control over their energy to a certain extent, with gas, with water and things like that. So that was the real big driving factor of why they wanted to look at being, an entity that has their own electric in the village.”

There are 40 communities that are part of the Municipal Electric Utilities Association of the State of New York. The village of Spencerport joined in the early 1940s. Spencerport Municipal Electric has about four linemen, but for major storms, like the ice storm in the 1990s, the MEUA offers mutual aid to association members.

“The service has been tremendous,” McPherson said. “Even on the fire service side, when we have a problem with lines, they’re there. They’re instantly there to fix the problems. But Village Electric, the line guys are awesome and the service is awesome.”

The village has made minor upgrades, like voltage adjustments and new power lines, since then to best serve its 3,200 customers in the village. But rates from Village Electric customers have remained consistent since 2011.

“At a ballpark figure, we charge between four and five cents a kilowatt hour,” Penders said. “Whereas an investor-owned, such as RG&E, or NYSEG, or one of those companies charges between 12 and 19 cents. So that’s the difference right there. When you multiply that times 3,000-kilowatt hour usage per month, there’s your difference in rate right there. Even to generate solar is more costly than what our tariffs are right now. For our village residents and customers.”

The energy is brought in from the Robert Moses Power Plant in Niagara Falls. It’s offered only to households within the village borders. McPherson says his former home from eight years ago was about a half hour away and electric was significantly more expensive.

“No Village Electric there. We averaged about $400 to $500 a month for the electric bill down there,” he admitted.

However, homes within village borders can come at a higher cost.

“There’s pros and cons of it because we do pay a little bit higher in property taxes for living in the village, but we do get the municipal electric,” McPherson said. “We get garbage pickup, stuff like that. So it kind of balances itself out a little bit.”