Tom Tuckey talks about prepaid electric.

Suwannee Valley Electric Cooperative (SVEC) Community Relations Manager Tom Tuckey recently updated the community on a new billing program at SVEC and also announced he will be retiring next year.

According to their website, SVEC came about as a result of the Rural Electrification Act signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on May 20, 1936. In 1937, SVEC was formed and incorporated. It is the oldest cooperative in the state of Florida. Seven rural residents became the Charter Board of Trustees: C.F. Hart, Madison L. Smith, Eula Fletcher, Louis D. Howell, Perry Davis, S.B. Blackmon and Luther Atkins.

In 1940, SVEC energized its first electric line consisting of 52 miles and serving 69 members. As of 2012, SVEC serves over 18,000 members, 27,916 services in place, 4,172 miles of energized lines serving four North Florida counties: Columbia, Hamilton, Lafayette and Suwannee.

Tuckey has been in the electric industry for over 40 years, previously working at Progress Energy (now Duke Energy) before taking early retirement. He has been with SVEC since April, 2007, starting out as assistant to the director of member services. In 2010, he was promoted to community relations manager and has worked with various community organizations and governments in SVEC’s service area, as well as handled billings for large accounts. 

Since 2007, Tuckey has worked on many initiatives at SVEC to improve the service provided to its members. Two in particular he is most proud of are the upgrade of SVEC’s website and the inception of the Outage Status Map (OSM). The OSM provides members with current outages which are available on the website, smart phones and tablets. He’s currently working to further improve the map and the information provided to members so they’ll be more informed.

In 2011, SVEC came out with a new prepaid billing program called “My Choice”, Tuckey said.

“Prepaid metering, in essence, you pay for electricity in advance,” he explained. “We were the second company in the state of Florida to offer the prepaid program.”

The prepaid program offers no late payment fees because you pay upfront, no disconnect or reconnect fees, no monthly billing statements, a minimum initial deposit and purchase, a customized payment schedule and the ability to purchase electricity at your convenience.

There are also many payment options, such as online account management, pay by phone (cell included), by bank draft or recurring credit card, pay by check in the mail, at local convenience stores, at First Federal, at the SVEC office in Live Oak or at the kiosk in the SVEC lobby 24/7.

You can sign up for text, e-mail or phone call alerts, as well, to be notified when your account balance gets too low.

“If it goes to a zero or a negative balance, your service is automatically cut off until you come in and pay. It’s up to the member to keep up with it,” said Tuckey. “Right now, we have 954 members on that program. and each month we keep putting more and more on. It’s really a great program as opposed to a traditional program where you pay once a month.”

Total upfront cost to get on the My Choice program is $80; $25 deposit, $25 connect, $5 membership, $25 advanced payment on electricity.

Standard monthly billing has a total upfront cost of $530 for an owner and $280 for a renter with the same membership and connect fees, but much higher deposits; $500 for an owner and $250 for a renter.

The My Choice program, Tuckey said, is ideal for a customer who is experiencing financial difficulty or has been cut off for non-payment. He added that there is no reconnect fee with this program if one does happen to get cut off.

Tuckey explained the reason why SVEC and other power companies charge a deposit on standard accounts is because once service is connected, the meter isn’t read until 30 days later. The bill isn’t due until 20 days later with an additional seven day grace period, so all in all, the customer would be receiving about 66 days of service without having to pay a dime. By charging a deposit, if the customer doesn’t pay, then at least the company has the customer’s deposit money to fall back on.

“Depending on the usage, that may or may not cover the bill,” said Tuckey.

Tuckey explained that meters are read through the power lines, meaning that meter readers no longer go house to house or business to business anymore.

“We start reading meters at midnight and it takes several hours to read about 20,000 meters,” said Tuckey.

When a customer is on the pre-pay system, when their meter is read by SVEC and there aren’t enough funds in their account, the meter is shut off.     That cut-off member can call SVEC and pay over the phone and their service will be turned back on within minutes, all without human intervention, Tuckey explained.

Anyone interested in the new pre-pay system may contact SVEC for more details.

Tuckey and his wife Debbie reside in Madison and they have three children and two grandchildren. When he’s not working, Tuckey said he enjoys playing golf and is looking forward to retiring in January, 2014 to spend more time with his family.