Electrical rates for residents across Lewis County are likely to rise this spring as both the Lewis County Public Utility District and Centralia City Light eye increases.
According to an assessment available on the PUD's website, the district is recommending raising rates on April 1 by 8.3 percent, averaged across multiple usage categories, to meet a more than $3.3 million annual deficit.
The largest usage category is residential, which currently collects around $33.2 million a year but requires around $35.8 million annually to operate, according to the PUD.
The next largest category is commercial power, which requires about $12.7 million annually and generates around $231,238 more than it costs annually.
Rates could continue to increase in subsequent years through 2020 in the projection.
Brad Ford, PUD spokesman, broke down the rate increases, which vary depending on customer class.
Daily charges will be increased by 20 cents, for a total of 95 cents, for residential, commercial and small industrial customers. Kilowatt-hour charges would be increased by 5.5 percent to .05763 cents.
Two cost of service analysis were done, one where the PUD met the minimal power supply demands and one where full demand was calculated.
Under the full demand analysis, residential rates could increase by 12.7 percent, while other categories, such as irrigation costs, could increase by as much as 89 percent.
However, irrigation costs make up a much smaller percentage of the overall budget, requiring only $169,568 annually to operate. This is offset by the fact that, according to the analysis, only $92,276 is collected each year.
Commercial, industrial transmission and security lighting rates could all see a decrease in service charges.
Ford said the PUD has been using reserves to balance their budget in recent years and needs to rebuild them. Warmer temperatures have also led to generally decreased usage and lower revenues, he said.
The PUD also buys energy as a set block from the Bonneville Power Administration and has historically sold off surplus power to help keep customer costs lower. A depression in energy prices has led to this being less profitable for the PUD.
Ford said a list of questions would be published on the PUD’s website by the time of publication and that additional questions could be directed to the district.
Rates will also increase for Centralia City Light customers in line with annual rate increases approved by the Centralia City Council in 2016, said General Manager M.L. Norton, who oversees the system.
Norton said more efficient devices and slow population growth in the coverage area has led to declining kilowatt-hour sales.
Lower revenue means City Light cannot continue to maintain and upgrade its systems without increasing rates, he said.
“Our system, because it has been around a very long time, we have maintenance things that go on to make sure that we can meet demands,” he said.
This is especially important during extreme weather, such as the cold snaps seen in January. Norton said on Jan. 5 City Light tied its record for most usage due to cold weather.
Within city limits, customers will see their base monthly charge increase from $17.39 to $21.39 this April. That rate will increase again to $24.39 in 2018.
Energy charge per kilowatt-hour will increase a fraction of a penny from 7.4 cents to 7.56 cents this year, before increasing to 7.63 cents in 2018.
Much of the revenue brought in from kilowatt-hour charges is in turn paid back to Bonneville Power Administration, an energy supplier for City Light, which has also been increasing rates for the city.
“Our rates had gone up from them, so we needed to raise our rates to our customers to cover those extra charges and, again, maintain the system,” Norton said.
Rate increases also help fund capital improvement projects such as a new substation near the south end of town in conjunction with the planned Centralia Station expansion.
While the substation is still in the design phase, Norton said City Light hopes to have it installed within the next two years.
Another substation near the Port of Centralia may need to be updated to keep up with the industrial district’s future expansion.
The silver lining to increasing rates, Norton said, is that Washington state has some of the lowest residential power rates in the country.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s website, Washington has the second-lowest residential power rates in the nation, following closely behind Louisiana.
Two public hearings on PUD rate increases will be held this month.
The first will be at the district’s Morton office, located at 240 Seventh St., on March 7, and the second will be the Chehalis office, located at 245 NW Pacific Ave., on March 14.
Both meetings will be held at 10 a.m.
Learn more online by visiting the Lewis County PUD website at lcpud.org.
The Centralia City Light website can be found via the city’s site, www.cityofcentralia.com.
