Councilmember Wills Preserves Third Tier Rate
City Light rate modified to impact fewer customers less severely,
but concept of rewarding conservation retained
Seattle - The City Council's Energy and Environmental Policy Committee voted today to preserve City Light's third tier electrical rate while at the same time, reducing the financial impacts to provide even the top 1% of energy users a break on their bills.
"Conservation is still a priority for the city and this is reflected by fairly charging high-energy consumers the marginal cost for delivering additional power," said Councilmember Heidi Wills, Chair of the committee. "We want to send a reasonable signal to City Light customers that conservation is our number one strategic resource."
Last May, the Council implemented the third tier. Energy consumption above 1,800 kilowatt-hours per month in the summer and 3,750 kilowatt-hours per month in the winter is charged $0.16 per kilowatt-hour. The changes made by the Energy and Environmental Policy Committee today would establish lower rates of $0.10 per kilowatt-hour for the third tier, and allow for more use of electricity before the third tier is charged. Thresholds for summer and winter consumption will be raised to 3,000 kilowatt-hours in the summer months, and 5,000 kilowatt-hours per month in the winter.
Over the last year, the third tier has affected the number of customers it expected to: it was charged to the top 1-3% of the highest electricity users. But it will be fine-tuned to affect only the top 1% or less under the proposed changes. "I feel that we've reached an equitable and fair resolution to retaining the third-tier, while providing some measure of rate relief for even the top 1% of City Light customers," said Wills.
Based on data presented to Councilmembers, this new rate and threshold would impact a very small number of identified low-income customers in City Light's service territory. The new changes to the third tier would affect 30 known low-income customers in the winter and 9 would have consumption levels in the third tier during the summer. The Committee voted to set the low-income third tier rate at $0.04 per kilowatt-hour (less than half the normal rate). Councilmembers also stressed the importance of providing energy-efficiency to these very households.
"City Light is encouraged to proactively outreach to these customers with retrofit options and conservation measures that will help lower energy consumption," said Wills. City Light offers free home energy audits and other programming for these very circumstances.
"We want to send this reasonable conservation signal to all our customers, but at the same time, setting the third tier rate for low-income customers at $0.04 rather than $0.10 recognizes their financial difficulties," Wills added.
The Committee gave City Light clear direction that identified third tier customers should be called and notified about their energy consumption and given every opportunity to utilize assistance programming in the form of rates and energy efficiency measures.
The proposed changes to the third tier go to the Full Council on Tuesday for a final vote. The lower third tier rates would take effect June 14th.
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