We are a few months into a new year. The Board of Business has only reviewed the first two months of revenue and expenditures and so far, so good. We’ve already received over 21% of our annual budgeted revenue, but only spent 16.1% of our annual expense budget. Expenses are mostly in line with what is expected. Revenue is above expectations again because some members fulfill their pledges early in the year.

When we get into the second quarter, I’ll report in greater detail on the full financial picture of the church. For now, we are doing well. Through February our pledge budget revenues exceed our expenses by almost $50,000. Giving to designated program and ministry funds exceeds expenses by $7,100. Thank you for your continued financial support of our church.

In early September 2023, our new solar panels went online. We’ve started to examine their impact on our electricity consumption. The congregation should understand that the utilities line item in our budget, in addition to electricity, includes natural gas, water and wastewater, and trash and recycling. The utility bill also includes a monthly charge for a light pole, which amounts to an average of around $110 per month. In warm months there is a minimum charge of $20 for natural gas. In colder months the average is closer to $90 per month. Water and wastewater average about $59 per month. Trash and recycling collection averages $325 per month.

The solar panels do not impact the electricity costs for the sanctuary. They only apply to services to the rest of the campus. For those buildings there are two separate meters, one that measures the kilowatts used and one that measures the kilowatts generated by the solar panels. The church does not directly use the solar generated electricity. It sells it to GRU at the same price that we pay for electricity from GRU. What this means is that for that part of the campus, the church pays for the net difference between the amount of kilowatts used and kilowatts generated plus all the usual fees and taxes (except sales tax) that we all see on our home GRU bills.

These first six month of having the solar panels in place occurred during the darker months of the year as days shorten and then begin to grow longer again. Some very stormy weekends also impacted the ability to generate electricity. During these first six months the net amount of kWh billed to UCG averaged 643. During the same six-month period at the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023 the average kWh billed was 1,339 which is a decrease of more than half of our billed kWh’s. In fact, for the use period ending November 6, 2023, the panels generated 271 kWh more than the church used. For those six months the cost of electricity per month is about half of the cost of electricity per month for the immediate prior six months.

We expect that as the days get longer the panels will generate even more electricity to offset the amount consumed. We look forward to seeing how our electricity bill is impacted during the hot summer months when building A/C units are more in use.