May 8. By Dave Vieser. A $36 annual rate hike for Energy United residential customers will go into effect on June 1. The increase will be reflected in a $3 a month facilities charge.

Energy United provides electricity to approximately 5,900 customers in Cornelius, who mainly west of I-77.

“Inflation is the key driver of the rate change,” said spokeswoman Marilyn Lineberger of EnergyUnited. “We performed a cost-of-service study this spring that reflected the impact of inflation on the costs of materials and equipment needed to serve our members and provide the electricity they count on.”

She said the electricity cooperative is only raising rates for what is needed to “run the business and deliver safe, reliable, sustainable electricity to members.”

The basic facilities charge is a fixed monthly fee which allows EnergyUnited to recover costs for necessary grid equipment such as transformers, poles and wires.

The rate hike will also impact some 12,000 customers in Huntersville as well as about 1,700 Davidson customers.

The last Energy United rate increase was in January 2023.

Because EnergyUnited is a not-for-profit utility, it returns excess funds to members in the form of “capital credits.”