If you installed solar panels and have Central Electric Coop, I’m guessing by now you have figured out the policy we were forced to sign is as bad or worse than we thought it was.

When I talked to someone from Allegheny Power (who we get power from), they said they don’t need or want our power.

Of course not — it takes away from how much they sell. That is odd, since the coop wastes money telling everyone not to use power during peak periods to save money and to stop brownouts. Not only are we not using their power, we are selling them power at low rates, not peak rates, which saves the whole coop money.

Not only did they stop letting us bank hours, they hid the fact the money generated would not match what we pay for their power. Basically, we now have to pay them to send them power. If you bought panels to help with the growing cost of electricity, do you realize next year they could impose a new contract that pays even less, since the coop is not regulated?

We need to write letters to the governor and our representatives, then come August we all need to go to the coop meeting to speak up for ourselves. Who’s to say next they won’t even give us credit for extra power generation, or even charge us to generate our own power?

Alan Sander, Slippery Rock