Jim Woodruff wholesale power: $9.02 a kilowatt, on an interim basis, until FERC finishes

The Jim Woodruff Project is a federal hydropower dam. Southeastern Power Administration sells the electricity at wholesale to public bodies and cooperatives that take delivery in Florida. It does not send a bill to a house. A city or a cooperative buys the power, then that utility’s own rates are a different case. This brief is about the wholesale schedule only.

Rate schedule JW-1-M took effect on an interim basis on October 1, 2026. It runs through September 30, 2031, unless that period is extended, or until FERC confirms it, or confirms a substitute, on a final basis. The old schedule, JW-1-L, had been approved by FERC in docket EF21-4-000 and was set to end September 30, 2026. Rate Order No. SEPA-69, signed by Administrator Virgil G. Hobbs III on September 17, 2026, is the interim order. The Federal Register published it on September 22, 2026, as document 2026-19342.

The monthly demand charge is $9.02 per kilowatt of contract demand. The energy charge is 24.72 mills per kilowatt-hour. A mill is one tenth of a cent, so 24.72 mills is 2.472 cents per kilowatt-hour. Power is three-phase alternating current at 60 cycles, delivered at the project’s point of interconnection. The customer, not SEPA, pays to move the power from that point to its own system. The billing month ends at midnight Central time on the last day of the month.

SEPA told the public, in a May 15, 2026 Federal Register notice, that it was proposing an increase. At the June 4, 2026 information forum the proposed annual generation revenue requirement was $8,662,652, about 6.7 percent higher. The proposed charges, which are the ones now on the interim schedule, were a 6.6 percent increase in the capacity charge and a 10.8 percent increase in the energy charge. A comment forum was held July 7, 2026. Written comments were accepted through August 27, 2026, after a 15-day extension.

This is a wholesale electric utility rate schedule for a federal power project. It is not a FERC Section 4 pipeline rate case, and it is not a Florida city council hearing. FERC’s job, under the delegation described in the notice, is the final yes, no, or remand. Until that final order, the interim rate is what the notice says is in effect. Questions in the notice go to Carter B. Edge at Southeastern, 1166 Athens Tech Road, Elberton, Georgia 30635, (706) 213-3800. The rate studies are available for review at that office. This brief is on the Jackson County, Florida hub because that is the county side of the dam. The customers are public bodies and cooperatives taking delivery in Florida, not only Jackson County.