High power bills have church seeking answers, solutions

RUSSELLVILLE — Electric bills that have more than doubled in the past two months have officials at Cedars Church working with the Russellville Electric Board to get some answers.

Cedar Church, located in the old Felton Hardware building downtown, Pastor Tanner Hall has asked electric board officials to check into the church’s rate category and the multiplier used to calculate power usage at the building.

Hall said he became concerned after bills for December 2025 and January 2026 were over two times the bills from the prior three months in 2025.

He said the church’s bills were $469.34 in September, $420.34 in October, and $335.01 in November.

Hall said the bill for the December 2025-January 2026 billing cycle was $1,162.61, and the bill for January-February was $1,462.

“We’re about helping the community here,” Hall said. “And we can’t do that with $1,400 to $1,600 power bills.”

Hall said the church has learned its account was listed under a GSA-1 rate, which is small commercial, and included a multiplier of 20.

“We’re not a commercial business, we’re a church.,” he said Friday.

Russellville Electric Board General Manager Derrick Moore said GSA-1 is the rate category assigned to the church, while the multiplier is part of how electricity usage is measured when a building has higher current or voltage than a standard meter can read directly.

“All the multiplier meter does is read a portion of it (usage),” Moore said. “That’s why you’ve got to multiply it by a certain amount to get the actual usage.”

Hall had questioned whether the multiplier is needed since the building is now a church and not a commercial business.

Moore said the electric board checked its equipment after the church raised concerns and then asked TVA to conduct its own testing. He said TVA’s testing showed the higher usage was tied to equipment inside the building rather than being a problem on the utility’s side.

Hall said TVA told the church the central heating and air unit, particularly the heat strips during cold weather, were responsible for the high amperage seen during testing.

“We’re going to have to figure out an option to get that out and put something new in,” Hall said.

Moore said the church could pursue a different meter setup if the building’s electrical load gets to a point where it falls below the level requiring a multiplier meter.

He said this would first require a review by the electric board, followed by work from an electrician to change the meter base, which would be paid for by the church.

Moore said changing the meter would not change the amount owed, but he said some people opt to do that “for peace of mind.”