Bedford increasing electric rates

BEDFORD, Va. (WDBJ) — Starting in October, Bedford residents will see higher monthly electric bills after the Town Council voted 5-2 this week to increase electric rates.

The five council members who voted in favor are Mayor CG Stanley, Vice Mayor Darryl Updike, Todd Foreman, Dave Foster and Dwight Evans.

Residents and business owners in the town said it will make things tougher each month.

“It affects your business, because what you have to do is, in order to continue keeping up with everything, I’ve got to go up with my prices too,” said Donald Adams, owner of Adams Clocks and Repair in downtown Bedford.

Adams said since he opened his business two years ago, his average monthly electric bill has already increased by $60 prior to the new increase taking effect. He said because of the newest increase, he will likely have to raise the price of clocks and repairs.

He said he is also concerned the town is now making business owners pay for their own trash pickup.

“It doesn’t matter what business you have; you still have to pass that on. Eventually, it’s going to hurt the customer, and we have to pay more, but we get less,” he said.

Bill Mosley lives in the town and manages several rental properties. He said the added monthly cost will have to be passed on to his tenants.

“Where we’re providing electricity, we’re going to have to pass that on to our tenants, many of whom are already struggling to pay utility bills. And you know, it’s certainly not going to do my household budget any good,” he said.

Mosley said while it’s too early to tell what the full impact of the increase will be, it will likely impact how people spend their money in town.

“It’s certainly not going to do any good, though. We may not be able to come to the Bridge Street Cafe as often if we’re having to pay that much more in electricity costs. Not to mention they’re going to have to pay more and probably increase their prices for my bagel in the morning,” he said.

The town said there will be three different rate increases depending on the type of customer and how much power they use. Residential customers using a thousand kilowatt hours of power a month or less will see a 17.2% rate increase, which the town said will likely be an average of around $25 more a month.

Small commercial users will see a 14% rate increase that will be an average of around $60 more a month. Large industrial users like manufacturers will see an 11% increase, which will be an average of around $11,000 more a month.

The town only generates a small portion of its own power and has to purchase the rest from a variety of sources. It said the rate increases are because its power costs have skyrocketed over the last few months, going from $40,000 a month to around $400,000 a month. It said this is due to certain power plants and coal mines shutting down.

The town said it has absorbed the cost increases over the last few months, which has led to a loss of over $1 million.

Bill Mosley said he’d like to see the town adopt a net-metering solar policy, where people with solar panels can sell their excess energy back to the town. It currently does not offer this option.

“That would be a good way to offset any of these power increases. Plus, it would provide more energy to the grid. I don’t understand the rationale,” said Mosley.

Mosely said he would like to add solar panels to several of his properties, but without net-metering, solar energy is not feasible in Bedford.

“We can’t justify it, it’s too expensive. If we can’t sell back our excess, then we can’t begin to break even,” he said.

The new electric rates will go into effect October 1. The town said it hopes to lower electric rates in the future if its energy costs go down.

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