Memphis City Council approves MLGW electric rate hike - Action News 5
Memphis City Council approves MLGW electric rate hike
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - It’s official — your electric bill will soon go up.
Tuesday night, the Memphis City Council approved Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s proposed 12% hike in electric bills spread out over three years in a 9-4 vote.
The utility first pitched the rate increase in October.
Each year, 4% will be added to customer electric bills. That will mean an extra $5 per month beginning next year for customers who rely on the company for electricity.
Councilmembers JB Smiley Jr., Jana Swearengen-Washington, Cheyenne Johnson, and Michalyn Easter-Thomas voted against the increase.
The Memphis City Council resolution noted that the increases will take effect next month, January 2025, and January 2026.
“For this council to move forward on this rate increase is like you are just saying, forget you citizens, forget the issues that you are dealing with, forget that you have to decide whether I am going to pay Light, Gas, and Water or buy food,” said Glenda Hicks, a resident who spoke against the increase at the council meeting.
Residents and some council members questioned where this money would go.
During a presentation, Doug McGowen, President and CEO of MLGW, explained much of the money received by the increase will go towards tree trimming. He said that is the main cause of power outages during storms.
He also said the increase will also help replace old transformers and underground cables regularly.
“We are getting the system that we paid for, and for us to really have a significant increase in reliability. We have got to replace outdated infrastructure and we have to modernize,” said McGowen.
Many in the council chambers agreed that upgrades needed to be made, but some wanted to see those upgrades before rates were increased.
“Let’s get a line-by-line show of what you are going to do with that, then let’s see you do it,” said Hicks. “Come back and show us what you have done, then we will feel better about moving forward with a higher rate increase.”
Many residents spoke out saying they are already paying a lot and know people who cannot afford to pay more.
This rate increase is expected to start in Cycle 1 of January 2024.
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