Geneva committee recommends blended energy charge

After more than 90 minutes of discussion at a special committee of the whole meeting Monday, Geneva council members unanimously supported a blended energy charge that would raise enough revenue to cover the utility's fixed costs and debt.

That means there would be one fixed energy charge for all users instead of rates based on blocks of usage, officials said.

In addition to maintaining the utility's infrastructure, the rates also need to pay off $30 million in bonds approved to build more substations for the industrial areas on the city's east side, officials said.

Council members favored the blended energy rate as it made the increase more equal among the rate classes. They still must take a final vote on the measure.

Superintendent of Electrical Services Aaron Holton and Eric Kamm of Stanley Consultants presented information about the city's electric rates in January and on July 3. They followed up this week to finalize how officials wanted to proceed.

"You go away from a block rate and just say one fixed energy charge, which is another common approach that you see quite often for residential or single-phase rates or general commercial rates," Kamm said. "We start off at about 12 cents per kilowatt hour energy charge overall. And for every dollar increase, you are reducing your energy charge by 1,200th of a penny, basically, (a) pretty small decrease in the energy charge."

The customer charge - the fixed charge all residential customers pay - would go from $6.75 to $8, eventually rising to $9 and $10 under the proposal.