Seattle City Light will be conducting a number of briefing sessions with key stakeholders to describe a new rate design for the municipally owned electric utility. The utility will be forwarding a set of recommended changes to customer rates to the City Council in early 2014. The Council will make final decisions about the utility rates later in the year and will cover the time period of 2015-2106. NEEC member companies should track this issue very closely as the new rate design offered for public comment is a dramatic departure from historical rate structures by the utility. NEEC will be publishing this information on our web site when it is available along with a full list of scheduled stakeholder meetings. To foreshadow the more detailed information to follow, some key features include;
RESIDENTIAL
- Retain two block price structure, simplify to 300 kWh/month first block on year round basis
- Basic service charge increased from $4.71 to $7.07 per month
- Reduce first block energy charge (kWh) by 37% and second block by 4%
- Low income discount program reduced from 60% rate discount to 50%.
SMALL GENERAL SERVICE
- Institute a new "infrastructure charge" of $1.66 per day, replacing the old minimum charge of $0.26 per day.
MEDIUM GENERAL SERVICE
- Medium Network meters billed on time-of-use rates.
- Replace minimum charge with base service of $0.62 per day.
- Increase demand charge from $2.13/kW to $5.95/kW
- Reduce energy charge (kWh) by 19%
LARGE AND HIGH DEMAND GENERAL SERVICE
- Replace minimum charge with a base service charge of $16.39/day
- Increase demand charge from $1.52 to $5.44 per kW (at peak)
- Reduce energy charge (kWh) by 17.5%