FAIRBANKS — It’s well below zero outside your kitchen window. You’re sitting at the table wondering how, in this tumultuous economy, you are going to pay all your bills, which seem to be rising. You’re behind on your electricity payments and worried about having your power turned off.

It’s the type of situation that occurs here and elsewhere around the nation and in increasing frequency.

Rates at Golden Valley Electric Association, which provides electrical power to approximately 45,000 customer in the Fairbanks area, went up 23 percent in the last year, according to Corinne Bradish, public relations officer for the utility. This means the bill for an average household usage of 700 kilowatt hours will go from $139 in January 2011 to $170 in January 2012, Bradish said.

GVEA sends out about 400 to 500 disconnect notices per month, according to CEO Brian Newton. While that number is higher than it was several years ago, the actual number of disconnects has stayed the same, at about 50 per month, Newton said. Of those 50, all but two or three are reconnected.

“Most of them will go find the money from relatives to keep the lights on, especially at this time of year,” Newton said. “When it gets right down to the last day or two, they’ll find the money somehow.”

GVEA considers an account to be delinquent if it remains unpaid 40 days after the original billing date, at which time a warning notice is sent to the customer — called a member because the utility is a cooperative — advising them they have 15 days to make arrangements to pay or their service will be disconnected, according to Bradish. By the time a member is disconnected for non-payment, they owe for two months and are getting ready to be billed for a third and sometimes a fourth month, Bradish said.

Even though electrical usage is higher in winter and the bill correspondingly higher as well, disconnects happen less frequently in the winter than they do in the summer, according to Bradish.

“They’re making that extra effort in the winter,” Bradish said.

It’s an effort worth making, especially if members want to avoid paying the multiple fees that are incurred when their account is in arrears, according to Newton. If a member’s power is disconnected and they can wait until the next day for reconnection, they will pay a $50 reconnect fee. If they can’t wait overnight and the utility sends someone out before 3:30 p.m., the fee will be $91.

“We may have to call the guy, whatever he’s doing, and send him out there to reconnect. You know it disrupts his entire day, versus if it’s the next day we actually plan it in the day’s work,” Newton said.

Those that were disconnected in the late afternoon and cannot wait until the next day for reconnection pay the highest fee.

“If they want it that night and it’s going to be overtime, which is their choice, it’s $284,” Newton said.

In addition to the reconnect fees, the member will have to pay their past due amount. A deposit will also be required, if the member had not already paid one when establishing their account. The standard rate is $120 but can go as high as twice the average monthly bill, depending on the circumstances, Newton said.

“That’s why there’s only 50 that get disconnected, because there’s a lot of fees involved and they certainly don’t want to pay their bill up to current, you know what I mean? So they’ll do just about anything to keep from getting disconnected, and I don’t blame them. That’s a lot of money to have to come up with. But it’s not impossible, or else we wouldn’t be turning that many back on,” Newton said.

GVEA will work with a member to establish a payment plan for past due amounts, but requires the bill be made current. Newton said about 80 members are on payment plans, and about eight of those are on multiple payment plans.

“We have lots of payment plans, we do averaging, we do all kinds of things, because remember, when they get down to the point where it’s disconnection time, they have exhausted all possibilities, they’re two to three months in arrears — probably up to a thousand dollars in arrears — and they are in deep doo-doo,” Newton said.

Contact staff writer Dorothy Chomicz at 459-7590.