FAQ

• Power supply costs are included in your base rate. However, due to the fluctuation of costs for fuel used to produce power, your co-op’s power supply costs also fluctuate. The Power Supply Cost Recovery charge helps us collect or return revenue outside of what you pay in your base rate to cover those changing costs.

This charge is the same every month for all members in the same rate class, regardless of how much electricity they use. The fee covers the cooperative’s routine operating expenses not tied to your electric consumption. It covers the cost of keeping the cooperative and its distribution system operating and ready to provide service to its members around the clock.

• Operations and maintenance: The biggest share of the monthly charge covers the cost of installing and maintaining poles, wires, transformers, and other distribution system equipment. Also included in this category is the cost of regular tree trimming and other system reliability work, along with the associated transportation costs. Serving more than 128,000 members across 26 counties, GLE is one of the largest electric cooperatives in the country.

• Support services: These include costs related to accounting, metering, billing, IT, member services, and office locations that help provide members with timely and reliable service. GLE also maintains a 24-hour emergency dispatch center to coordinate both regular service work and outage restoration efforts.

• Capital costs: GLE also incurs costs such as equipment depreciation, interest on long-term loans, insurance, taxes, and other normal business expenses.

• Margins: Although GLE is a not-for-profit organization, to ensure the company’s long-term financial stability, it’s important for its income to exceed its costs. The cooperative uses this excess, known as a margin, as a cushion against unexpected costs and to prepare for future system investments. When financial conditions allow, GLE returns margins to its members in the form of capital credits.

Visit the Account Information page for more information.

Great Lakes Energy offers several convenient Pay Your Way options for paying your electric bill.

• To set up an online account–which gives you access to options such as viewing your bill, seeing your usage history, reporting and outage or making a payment online, among others–go to gtlakes.com and click on My Account near the top of the screen. Create your username and password.
• Want paperless billing? If so, sign up for it by logging into your account and enrolling in paperless billing. If you do not enroll in paperless billing, you will continue to receive mailed paper bills.
• Do you prefer to pay through your bank’s online payment service? When setting that up with your bank, please record your full account number as it appears on your bill and list the payee as Great Lakes Energy Cooperative. If your account number changes for any reason, please verify the new account number and change it in your bank’s bill payment information.
• Do you want to make payments on multiple accounts through your bank’s online payment service? Please call us at 1-888-485-2537 for additional information on how to set those accounts up in your bank’s online system to ensure payments get credited to the proper account.
• To use the GLE mobile app, download the most recent app by visiting the app store. You must have an online account in order to use the app. Use it to report outages or service issues or to access information from your GLE online account.
• Prefer to receive mailed paper bills and mail or deliver your payments to GLE? You don’t have to do a thing. GLE automatically mails bills to you unless you enroll in paperless billing.

For more payment options visit Pay Your Way.

Deposits are held for 12 months. GLE then reviews the account. If there has not been a late payment in that 12 months, the deposit is refunded as a credit on your bill.

Great Lakes Energy does not offer any special rates. GLE is a cooperative, meaning every member is treated equal, has equal voting rights, and pays the same rate as others in the same rate classification. Seniors with limited income should find out if they qualify for one or more payment assistance programs available. 

Yes. Please note, however, that if the meter is inactive for less than 12 months, monthly charges will be back-billed and a reconnect fee of $40 will be charged. Monthly fees are back-billed to cover GLE’s cost of maintaining lines and equipment for a location whether or not it is in use. (For further information on the monthly charge, visit the Account Information page.) If a meter is inactive for more than 12 months, an inspection by the county is required upon reconnect and the $40 reconnect fee will be charged. 

Contact us at 1-888-485-2537 or [email protected] with any questions. Call center hours are 7:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m.

The MI Low Income Energy Fund was established by the Michigan legislature as a long-term solution to assist low-income, at-risk residents with their utility bills. The intention is to provide funds to prevent disconnection of service and to help people become more energy self-sufficient. The program is funded by Michigan electric consumers with a line item on their utility bill. All GLE members will see the surcharge on their bill.

The surcharge amount is adjusted each September by the State of Michigan and cannot exceed $1 per month.

Michigan electric utilities have the option of not collecting this surcharge. However, utilities that choose not to participate in the program would be subject to the following:

1. Their ability to implement normal collection procedures to handle delinquent accounts during the  heating season of Nov. 1 – April 1 would be limited.
2. Qualifying low-income families they serve would be put at risk of not being able to obtain the Energy Fund assistance they need to get through the next heating season.

You pay only one monthly surcharge if the meters all have the same service address. The intent is to apply the surcharge to each metered account unless there are two meters at the same residential site. 

The intent is that funds collected from our members will only be distributed within our service area. The state’s plan is to collect money from our members and distribute it according to state guidelines within our service area.

We will follow our normal collection procedures, which include the last resort measure of disconnecting accounts for nonpayment if necessary. Members should contact us immediately if they have a past due balance on their account. We will work with them to help them avoid disconnection of service. Qualifying members, including those age 65 and older, can avoid shutoff during the heating season by enrolling in the state Winter Protection Plan.

Please contact your local state representative or senator. Visit Michigan.gov for more information.