VALDOSTA — Bills, bills, bills — they arrive in the mailbox or inbox once a month without fail.

Among them are water, sewer and power bills, hardly optional for most consumers. 

But unlike cable TV or cellphones, residents usually don’t get to switch utility providers if they don’t like the price. Most of the time, who lights up the home and who fills the sink with water are determined by where you live and are not up for negotiation.

So how do utility rates for power, water and sewer stack up across the region?

Power

In the SunLight Project coverage area — Valdosta, Dalton, Thomasville, Tifton, Milledgeville and Moultrie, Ga., and Live Oak, Jasper and Mayo, Fla., along with the surrounding counties — power rates vary greatly, from some of the lowest to the highest in the region.

All kinds of factors affect rates: how much power is used, the time of year, extreme weather, a person’s age and the different plans power companies offer to customers.

But the Georgia Public Service Commission compiles rates for all power providers every summer and winter, providing an easy way to compare costs across communities.

Power is measured by kilowatt-hours. The following rates from the PSC are the monthly costs for 1,000 kWh, which is close to the amount of power an average home uses.

The costs listed below are from summer 2016. While some rates stay the same year-round, many providers boast lower costs during the winter.

The average monthly power bill in the tiny town of Doerun (population 800) in Colquitt County is $167, the second highest in the entire state.

The highest average charge of $175.50 comes from an even smaller town, Whigham (population 500) in Grady County.

The state defines the service territories for competing power companies, meaning each home already has an assigned power provider who’s got dibs.

Georgia Power is by far the largest electric company in the state, serving 2.5 million customers in all but four of Georgia’s 159 counties.

That’s roughly half of all electric customers in the state. The rest are served by municipalities or EMCs.

Georgia Power’s reach covers large parts of Valdosta, Lowndes County, Milledgeville, Baldwin County, Tifton and Tift County.

Its rates are near the bottom of the pack for winter (averaging $104.87) but move above the average in the summer with a charge of $127.34.

Colquitt Electric Membership Corporation — a company that serves 43,000 customers in seven counties, including Colquitt, Lowndes and Tift — offers a much lower average bill of $108.50 (which stays the same year-round).

But a person living in Moultrie will pay a much higher average rate of $132.30, which is even higher than a Georgia Power bill.

Baldwin County has three EMC providers that stick near the mid to lower part of the scale: Tri-County EMC ($119.01), Oconee EMC ($121.45) and Washington EMC ($122.50).

In Thomas County, Thomasville Utilities charges a slightly higher average that comes to $124.90 for its 16,000 customers, which is just above the state average of $123.14.

But Grady EMC, which also serves Thomas County, along with Grady and Decatur counties, charges a much higher average rate of $131, ranking it the 72nd most expensive provider out of the 94 in the state.

Those living in Dalton have the luxury of paying the second lowest power bill in the state; Dalton Utilities currently charges an average rate of $93.50 year-round, which is beat only by Cobb EMC’s charge of $91.69.

Even though residents can’t choose their power provider (unless they move), there are ways to cut down on energy costs.

Most providers offer a free in-home energy audit where a trained professional goes to a home and points out easy fixes to make the home more energy-efficient.

Bruce Bailey, an energy conservation advisor with Colquitt EMC, said people will watch less TV and turn off the lights more in an attempt to lower the power bill. But those things don’t make much of a difference, he said, and people get frustrated when their actions don’t produce savings.

The biggest energy eaters are actually appliances that aren’t working properly, Bailey said. It could be A/C coils that are rusty and inadequate. It could be a hot water leak. It could be water pumps that run continuously without the owner knowing, something Bailey calls the “silent power thief.”

Those are the things that increase power bills, Bailey said, and addressing such problems will bring costs down noticeably.

Here are some other quick and easy ways to make a home more energy-efficient:

— Use cool water to wash clothes.

— Install water-saver shower heads to reduce hot water usage during showers.

— Use lower wattage bulbs or energy-saver bulbs.

— Use a microwave instead of the range or oven. The microwave cooks fast and doesn’t heat the kitchen.

— Bump the A/C up a few degrees when away from home.

— Check air-conditioning ducts to ensure there are no leaks.

— Adjust shades, blinds, draperies and awnings to block the sun’s rays.

— Set the water heater at 120 degrees. A person’s water heater may be heating water much hotter than necessary.

— Change the A/C filter monthly during heavy use. Dirty filters slow down airflow and make the unit run longer.

Water and Sewer

At a Live Oak City Council meeting in September, a crowd filled city hall to voice opposition to the city’s decision to drastically raise water and sewage rates.

For nearly two hours, residents spoke against the price hike. One of the residents was Lynda Owens.

She told the council how there are people struggling to keep their water running, people who have to choose between paying their rent or paying their water bill.

“Most of the people who live in the city limits do not have high-paying jobs. They don’t live in luxury houses. They’re not driving expensive cars,” Owens said. “These are people who are just trying to live day-to-day.”

She said these people can’t afford the taxes the city has put on them.

But the city had run out of options, City Manager Ron Williams said at the time. The government needed money to improve its services.

The city had actually been losing money on its water and wastewater services in previous years and had been borrowing from savings to avoid raising rates.

But that cycle had to end. Officials and consultants all said a rate increase was needed to get the city back on track.

“This is a very important step,” said Joanne Luther, city finance director. “We really have a big need. We have been living on our savings and not addressing any rate increases.”

Before the increase, Live Oak residents paid $12.26 for up to 3,000 gallons of water. This coming year, they will pay $16.31 for up to 2,000 gallons and an additional price for every 1,000 gallons after that.

The following year, the price will surge to $20.35 for up to 2,000 gallons, an $8 hike from the original price.

Water and sewer rate increases are becoming a regular reality for many communities as utility departments look to garner the funds needed for major improvements and regular maintenance.

Water and sewer services are enterprise funds, meaning they have to pay for themselves through user fees. So if the department needs to increase its revenue for upcoming projects, raising rates becomes a natural and practical solution.

Henry Hicks, the utilities director for the City of Valdosta, said governments usually try to spread increases through several years so it stings less for residents. If cities and counties put the increase off year after year and then implement it all at once, residents are likely to be much angrier.

In 2012, Valdosta decided to increase rates by 5 percent annually for five years. Hicks said the raise was needed to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of running and maintaining the department’s massive facilities and vast network of pipes.

Even after the five years of increases, Hicks anticipates more hikes in the near future, he said.

Governments aren’t in the business of making money, so rate increases are enacted not to pad pockets but rather to ensure residents get quality services, many officials have said.

Governments calculate water and sewage bills several different ways depending on the community, but usually they charge a base rate and then add on money based on how much water is used.

To provide a fair comparison, the water rates listed below are what residents pay monthly for 3,000 gallons of water.

Valdosta’s water rate comes in well below Live Oak’s at $12.60, while Lowndes County charges a higher $17.60. Lowndes has a 1 percent increase built into each year’s budget until leaders decide otherwise.

But it’s also important to note Lowndes serves only a small portion of its residents. The rest are serviced by a massive group of about 70 private water systems that are far less regulated in price and quality.

The City of Tifton charges $22.49 for residents in the city, but those in the county have to pay a steeper price of $33.60. The city’s last rate increase was in 2014.

Milledgeville charges a low $12.89, especially compared to Baldwin County, which has the highest water rate in the SunLight coverage area at $46.

Thomasville sits in the middle of the pack at $23.

The lowest price in the coverage area belongs to Dalton, which charges only $9.72 for up to a whopping 7,500 gallons.

Sewage rates are consistently higher than water rates, mainly because there’s more cost involved in dealing with sewage, officials said.

The following sewage rates are also based on 3,000 gallons of water use.

On the high end is Tift County ($33.60) and Thomasville ($33.24).

On the low end is Dalton (once again) at $13.05.

In the middle is Valdosta ($18.20), Tifton ($22.49) and Lowndes County ($23.26).

Even though utility prices fall and rise from city to city, a consistent theme is a portion of the population that struggles to pay the water or power bill each month.

When Ends Don’t Meet

When Traci Stewart wanted to spread her wings last year after losing a job and living with relatives for some time, there was just one problem — actually, $1,065 of them.

Stewart, the mother of a 14-year-old son, had left a bill behind when she lost her residential independence. With the past-due amount and double deposit to pay, it looked like her desire to have her own place again would be denied.

“After I got a job at Sav-A-Lot, I decided to go out on my own,” Stewart, 34, said. “I got approved for the apartment, but I had five days to get the utilities in my name.”

The landlord at Paradise Apartments, located behind Walmart in southeast Moultrie, would only hold the apartment for that length of time. Stewart had landed a job, but did not have the money she needed.

At Community Action Council’s Moultrie office, Stewart was able to get assistance with the apartment deposit and first month’s rent. The CAC also helped pay off the past-due utility bills, but the agency couldn’t cover the cable fees owed.

Eventually, with the $350 she got from from the CAC along with financial help from others — including $400 from her boss and store owner, Al Solanki — she raised enough money to settle in to her new place.

Solanki allowed her to pay back the money at $25 a week, interest free.

For people such as Stewart who struggle to pay basic bills, there is an abundance of help available. Agencies such as the CAC, United Way and Coastal Plain centers often offer assistance.

Homeless shelters and churches chip in as well.

Amy Kleem, executive director of Family Promise, an organization in Whitfield County that helps the homeless and low-income families find places to live, said part of eliminating homelessness is keeping people off the streets from the start.

“One way to keep people out of our shelter is to keep them from becoming homeless, so we provide prevention services to those at risk of losing their homes,” Kleem said. “That might include help with rent or help with utilities.”

There are even federal programs that help with utility payments, such as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps people cover heating and cooling costs.

Project Share through the Salvation Army allows residents to add on a few dollars to their power bills, which goes to help people struggling to pay their power bills.

And for those struggling to make ends meet, a great place to start is the utility providers, who can usually refer them to the people and organizations who can help keep the lights burning and water running.

The SunLight Project team of journalists who contributed to this report includes Thomas Lynn, Patti Dozier, Charles Oliver, Billy Hobbs, Will Woolever, Alan Mauldin and Eve Guevara, along with the writer, team leader John Stephen.

To contact the team, email sunlightproject@gaflnews.com.