Login

City holds the (power) line

Print

The bad news is: electricity rates will go up in July. The good news is: just a little bit.

The City Council approved a new rate schedule with a 1.89% bump May 24.

That amounts to about $1.26 a month for a customer using 400 kWh; had the old rate schedule remained in place, that bill would have increased by $6.39.

For those who use more power, a customer using 1140 kWh per month will pay an extra $3.12. For a general service small customer using 7980 kwh per month, the bill will go up $21.59; for a general service medium customer using 81,147 kwh per month, the increase would amount to $206 per month.

City Manager Maryann Ustick commended Electric Director John Wheeler for his department’s stewardship of the utility, noting that annual rate increases usually take the Consumer Price Index into account.

“The CPI this year, with inflation out of control, is over 8% so it would have been a huge increase,” she said. “Because the Electric Department is so well managed, he was able to just pass on the cost of power, which we have to do because that’s an actual cost.”

The rate increase will produce an estimation of over $460,000 in additional revenue to the Electric Enterprise for fiscal year 2023.

By Holly J. Wagner
Sun Correspondent

Share/Save/Bookmark