MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (WCBD) -- Santee Cooper customers could see a change in their electric bill next spring. The state-owned utility company's board is expected to vote on Dec. 9 on whether to raise rates for its more than 200,000 customers in Berkeley, Georgetown, and Horry counties—the first base rate increase in seven years. If approved, the average residential customer would pay an additional $11 per month, bringing their monthly bill to an estimated $126. The increase would take effect beginning in April 2025. The company said critical updates are needed to its electric system to maintain reliable service and comply with new environmental, grid operations, and security regulations. Officials also cited inflation as a primary driver for the proposed changes, noting that current rate revenue will not be enough to cover the company's expenses next year. “When inflation is combined with investments necessary to comply with regulations related to the environment, grid operations and security – all while continuing to provide reliability that is among the best in the country – Santee Cooper is pressed into a position where current rates won’t provide enough funds to meet our costs,” the company’s website states. Federal program helps families pay their energy bills The company is also considering implementing a new three-part rate structure, which officials said would give customers more control over their bills by allowing some residential users to pay only for their share of the total electricity provided during peak times. The idea is that customers could stagger or shift when they use appliances that require a large amount of energy such as dryers and water heaters to reduce their bills. Under the proposed structure, expenses would be broken down into three categories: an energy charge, a customer charge, and a peak hour demand charge. The customer charge, which represents the flat rate for residential customers, would be $20 per month -- a 50-cent increase. The energy charge would be about 8 cents per kilowatt-hour. Residential customers would also pay an $8-per-kilowatt surcharge during peak hours. Those would be 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. April through October and 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. November through March. That means a family that turns on their oven at 5 p.m. to make dinner during summer months would pay more than a family that waits until after 6 p.m. to use theirs. Businesses would pay $12 per kilowatt during the busiest times of the day, a figure slightly less than originally proposed but some argue is still too high. The South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce estimated that nearly half (44%) of small businesses served by Santee Cooper would see their electric bills increase by at least 10%. "While Santee Cooper deserves additional revenue for past and future expenses, all of their direct serve small businesses should be treated fairly with easy to understand rules for avoiding higher electric bills," said President and CEO Frank Knapp Jr in a Nov. 12 statement. "The proposed rate design is unfair and confusing. It will result in significant and unnecessary rate increases for many of Santee Cooper's 25,000 small business customers and Horry and Georgetown counties." "The state legislature needs to step in and protect small businesses from this proposed rate disaster if the Santee Cooper Board refuses to do it." Others suggested that the changes would force smaller businesses that use less electricity to subsidize heavier uses and would not help reduce electricity use overall during peak times, calling the demand charge an "outdated, dysfunctional, and confusing" method. "Santee Cooper should not implement its plan to base a large portion of monthly bills for small business and residential customers on a single hour of usage," said Eddy Moore, Director of Decarbonization at the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "That is the fundamental flaw in their new rate proposal, which will cause it to produce arbitrary, unfair results for thousands of small business and residential customers from an otherwise modest rate increase." Santee Cooper estimates that between 4,000 and 4,500 of its commercial customers would see no change to their monthly bill under the new structure, according to a provided chart. Santee Cooper rates have been frozen since 2020 as part of a settlement in a class action lawsuit related to the failed expansion of the VC Summer nuclear plant.