PORT ANGELES — Utility base rates are going up for all in Port Angeles next year, while some will see increases or decreases in usage rates.
The Port Angeles City Council approved the new monthly rates 5-1 on Oct. 12. Current utility rates will expire in December. New rates are planned in 2022 and 2023.
The current base rate for electricity is $25.24. Come 2022, that will increase to $29.17. Low-usage residents will see an increase of $1.52 monthly while medium- to high-usage residents will see a decrease of $2.99.
“This is a continuation of the 10-year phase-in approach of shifting usage to base, with the expectation that the overall impact rate will be neutral due to savings that were achieved as a result of paying off (Electric Revenue Bonds) in early 2020,” said Finance Director Sarina Carrizosa.
Council member Brendan Meyer was the lone dissenting vote. He cited concerns about the cost for low- and medium-usage ratepayers.
“Tonight, I’m going to be opposing the electric rate increase,” Meyer said during the meeting.
“Using the current methodology, low-and medium-consumption ratepayers will see an overall increase in their bill … while heavy-consumption users will see an overall decrease. Over the next 10 years, it will effectively double the base rate for our ratepayers.
“I hope that we can entice heavy electric-consumption industries to our city to both maintain and help our electrical infrastructure and avoid new industries that generate their own electricity,” Meyer said.
Port Angeles adopted a methodology in 2019 intended to make utility costs more affordable for residents.
The Utility Advisory Committee presented to the city council a cost of services assessment for each utility, laying out a set of principles as the driving factor in making utility costs more affordable.
The principles state that the utility rates must be cost-based and meet the revenue requirements of the particular utility, be easy to administer and be fair, equitable and affordable for all residential and commercial properties.
Council member Mike French noted that despite the decrease, higher-consumption ratepayers will still pay more than lower-usage ratepayers because of the increased base rate.
“Just for the public’s understanding, high users still pay more dollars, it’s just that the hill is a little less steep,” he said.
“We’re not flipping some sort of switch here. It is just an effort to make sure our electric utility has a more reliable understanding of its revenue sources so that we can do more asset management and more long-term planning,” French continued.
Rates for stormwater and solid waste will have minimal changes.
The current monthly stormwater rate is $204.14 for residential and $200.85 for commercial properties. Residents can expect either no change or a decrease of $0.08 in their rates in 2022 due to the phasing out of the Equivalent Residential Unit (ERU) cap from 15 to 25. However, this will impact commercial properties, which will see more than a $3 increase.
“We expect that residential customers will not see an increase to their stormwater rates. However, commercial properties with greater than 15 ERUs will see an overall increase due to the increased ERU cap,” Carrizosa said.
There are currently no expected rate changes with regard to solid waste management and the transfer station as the city continues to work toward ending its contract with Waste Connections.
Discounts on all utilities are available to all low-income customers.
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Reporter Ken Park can be reached at kpark@peninsuladaily news.com.
