Revenue neutral utility plan lowers electricity costs

ALBANY — Discussing his marching orders to create a revenue-neutral rate proposal for Albany Utility Board customers for Fiscal Year 2017, Electric Cities of Georgia official Chau Nguyen said the plan was to “not make more money.”

City Manager Sharon Subadan quickly edited that comment.

“We do want to make more money,” Subandan said, “but we don’t want to make it on the backs of our customers.”

The ECG plan, which was tabled by the Utility Board for further study, achieved almost complete revenue-neutral goals by, as Nguyen said, “increasing fixed costs but lowering variable costs precipitously.”

Under the proposal, all Utility Board customers would pay less per kilowatt hour for electricity but slightly higher meter charges. In the end, the average monthly cost for residential customers using 1,100 kilowatt hours would drop by a penny, while the average commercial non-demand user’s bill would decrease by 4 cents.

“By lowering the variable rates — the costs for electricity — you incentivize the customer to use the product more efficiently,” Nguyen said. “In every case, we’ve proposed lowering the costs for usage.”

Under the proposal, residential customers’ cost per kilowatt hour would drop from 9.7525 cents to 9.2140 cents. Commercial non-demand costs would decrease from 15.1850 cents to 14.8040; commercial demand from 10.8800 cents to 9.5040; church demand from 10.8800 cents to 9.0440, and large industrial significantly less, from 10.0600 cents to 7.3040.

Those rates apply to various kilowatt-hour usage levels. Rates get lower with more usage.

Meter charges — the fixed rates Nguyen mentioned — for residential customers would increase from $10.25 to $16; commercial non-demand from $16.40 to $20; commercial demand from $25.63 to $30; church demand from $25.63 to $40; large commercial demand from $51.25 to $60, and large industrial from $102.50 to $200.

The board also discussed recouping costs for distributed generation (generally solar power) customers. Nguyen noted that the plan builds in monthly meter costs.

“I’m not sure people understand that if they go to solar power, they still have to have meters,” Mayor Dorothy Hubbard, the Utility Board’s chairwoman, said. “They need to have access to power at night and when it’s cloudy and they don’t get enough sun.”

Nguyen said the meter rates would offset the costs incurred by the utility board, noting though, that customers who “go full DG” and “off the grid” must understand that “their convenience will be interrupted from time to time.”

Subadan added, “If we don’t recoup the costs (incurred by solar power customers), the other ratepayers would have to pick up the costs.”

Also at the meeting, staff gave the board an update on new customers and projects that the authority is working on. Director of Utility Operations Jimmy Norman said recently completed infrastructure installation is allowing the Utility Board to add “six to eight new customers a day” along the U.S. 82 Rails-to-Trails corridor targeted by the city for expansion.

At the close of the meeting, Subadan recognized Utility Board employee Torian Washington for service above and beyond the call of duty. Washington heard a customer’s cry for help and found a fire in her home. He put out the fire, and the home suffered only minor damage.

“(Washington) is emblematic of the kind of employees the city has,” the city manager said.