More than 10,500 JEA customers don’t get a bill each month for the electricity and water they use in their homes.
That’s because they are enrolled in “My Way,” a pay-as-you-go plan that allows customers to avoid paying a deposit to establish utility service and to monitor their usage.
Customers may pay for service monthly, weekly or on their own schedule after they establish an account with as little as $50.
The program was explained Tuesday to JEA’s board of directors by Chief Customer Officer Monica Whiting.
“The customer adds money to their account and it’s debited as utilities are used,” she said.
Prepayment may be made online or by phone with a bank account or credit or debit card.
Deposits may be made in person at JEA’s Downtown Customer Care Center, Winn-Dixie stores, Duval County Tax Collector offices or at about 600 JEA neighborhood payment sites.
When a customer’s account balance is getting low, they receive their choice of a text message, email or telephone notification. Account balance and consumption information is available at jea.com.
There is no credit check or connection fee and no reconnection charge if a My Way customer’s balance hits zero and utilities are temporarily disconnected.
Whiting said when JEA began offering payment options in 2012, the utility was “significantly behind industry standards.”
Four years later, more than 60 percent of customers use one of several payment and billing options available.
Nearly 65,000 customers participate in e-Billing, which eliminates a paper bill mailed to their home and instead delivers the bill via email.
About 32,000 customers are enrolled in AutoPay, which allows the monthly bill to be automatically withdrawn from a bank or credit union account.
Another popular payment option, with about 20,000 participants, is My Budget level billing.
The monthly bill reflects the average usage of the previous 12 months, which allows customers to pay about the same each month and avoid higher bills in the summer and winter seasons.
Whiting said JEA is working with nonprofits and the Jacksonville Housing Authority to make more customers aware of payment options. The utility also is promoting the options via an email and social media campaign.
In other business, the board unanimously approved the new five-year contribution and interlocal agreement with the city.
The product of a year of negotiations between JEA senior staff, City Council and the mayor’s office, the agreement sets the utility’s minimum annual contribution to the city general fund at $114.2 million this fiscal year with annual increases of 1 percent beginning Sept. 1.
The agreement also provides to the city from JEA 30 metric tons of water quality credits through December 2023.
An additional contribution of $15 million will be made by JEA, to be matched within five years by the city, to expand the sewer system and eliminate septic tanks, a major source of pollution entering the St. Johns River.
The legislation for the agreement was approved last week by council.
As soon as board Chair Tom Petway signed the document, JEA Chief Financial Officer Melissa Dykes said, “We are carrying it to the mayor for his signature.”
Council member Bill Gulliford stood next to Petway as he put his pen the document after the meeting adjourned.
“Thank you all for making the process to renegotiate the agreement easy,” said Gulliford, who led the committee that drafted the legislation.
Paul McElroy, the utility’s CEO and managing partner, said Gulliford deserves credit for “his patience leading and herding the cast of characters” involved in the year-long negotiation.
The board postponed a solar policy workshop scheduled for Tuesday until April 7.
It will make a decision at its April 19 meeting whether to amend its net-metering policy that allows owners of rooftop solar systems to return excess electricity generated to JEA’s grid in exchange for a credit on their electric bill.
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