Redding Electric Utility proposes rate adjustments in response to inflationary pressures and aging infrastructure - KRCR
Redding Electric Utility proposes rate adjustments in response to inflationary pressures and aging infrastructure | KRCR
REDDING, Calif. — The Redding Electric Utility company (REU) will recommend rate adjustments for the next few years at Dec. 5's city council meeting.
REU is a community-owned not-for-profit utility, and to ensure financial stability, as well as to comply with California's environmentally friendly energy requirements, they had to propose these increases. Officials with the utility say it has to do with the inflation we are currently seeing in the economy.
Officials, like REU Assistant Director of Resources Joe Bowers, say they predicted what a five-year cost of energy would be in 2021. However, by this year, the five-year cost of energy went up $21-million in just two years. Bowers explained to KRCR’s Tyler Van Dyke why they need to raise the rates.
"The same as a lot of utilities, it's aging infrastructure. 150 miles of underground cable that needs to be replaced. It's 30, 40 years old. It's starting to fail. We want to maintain our high-reliability metrics, and so that needs to be done," Bowers says. "We're getting hit with inflationary pressures—just power supply costs, themselves, and we have a lot of infrastructure that's coming due."
REU says it will implement an average rate increase of 4%, effective Jan. 1, 2024—plus an additional 4% on Jan. 1, 2025. That means residential customers will see an increase of about $6.75 per month starting next year. Then, an additional $7.75 per month in 2025.
Even with the proposed rate hikes, REU says its rates will still be among the most affordable in the state. According to a graph by REU, showing the average residential bills, Redding ranks sixth among several California utilities.
If you have questions or concerns there are two public workshops coming up: one on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 4:30 p.m. at the REU Office on Avtech Parkway, the other on Friday, Nov. 17, at 10 a.m. at the MLK Center on Sheridan Street.
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