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Power will cost more for Pikeville residents
By Vince Williams
NL Staff Writer
8 May 2008 — The Pikeville Town Board had lots of questions Monday night for ElectriCities Senior Vice President Ken Raber.
ElectriCities is a wholesale power supplier and trade organization for municipal power services that provides safety education and training for more than 90 entities in the Carolinas. The city of Pikeville has a contract with the agency to administer their power services that was signed in 1982, and remains binding until 2022.
While Mr. Raber attended the Pikeville Town Board meeting Monday night to discuss the company’s load management initiative intended to reduce costs, the board had several concerns regarding the company’s rates.
Mr. Raber informed the board that load management allows the utility to cycle power on and off to individual hot water heaters and air conditioning units during peak usage times. When the power supply to these units are cycled, it is never off for more than 15 minutes. This makes the process nearly transparent, minimizing the inconvenience to the user. Generally the peak usage time occurs between 4:00 and 6:00 in the afternoon during summer, and around 6:00 in the morning during the winter months. Installation of the required switch would require a one-time charge of about $125 per household and would net about $10 in savings monthly. According to Mr. Raber, it would take the city about two and half years to recoup the costs of the upgrade.
Mr. Raber also informed the council that due to increases in the price of coal, nuclear power and the subprime mortgage crisis, the company would be increasing rates by seven to ten percent. The rate increase is expected to take effect in September. Mr. Raber blamed the increase on the fact that Progress Energy has changed the way they bill his agency due to their need to upgrade the Brunswick nuclear power unit, the need to update the transmission power lines, a 139 percent increase in the price of coal over the last year, a spike in the price of nuclear fuel and the subprime mortgage crisis.
Town Commissioner Dennis Lewis took Mr. Raber to task on the fairness of the company’s pricing structure, asking him several pointed questions about how the agency sets it’s rates.
“In December,” he said “Duke Power and Progress Energy lowered their rates. Why didn’t ElectriCities?”
Mr. Raber corrected Commissioner Lewis that while Duke Power did decrease their rates, Progress Energy, from whom ElectriCities purchases their power, did not. He advised the board that Progress Energy had, in fact, raised their rates and that ElectriCities’ rates were set at their cost. According to Mr. Raber, any rate decrease would impact the operating costs of the agency and jeopardize the reliability of power delivery, especially in the event of a catastrophic failure of a nuclear facility or other part of the power delivery infrastructure.
Commissioner Lewis went on to ask Mr. Raber to explain the disparity in rates between citizens who live in the city limits and those who are outside the city and served by either Progress Energy or Tri-County EMC. While quoting excerpts from the 1982 contract, he advised Mr. Raber it would be difficult to renew any contract that didn’t provide the most reasonable power rates for the citizens of Pikeville.
Mr. Raber responded by reiterating to the board his assertion that ElectriCities has the best, lowest cost plan in the country, and that it is the company’s need to service it’s debt resulting from the construction of the Shearon Harris nuclear power facility that is impacting the final cost of it’s power. He would not say, however, that once that debt was clear in 2026 a rate decrease would be forthcoming.
In other actions Monday night the board moved to adopt a budget ordinance and approve an agreement for engineering services to continue the rehab of the city’s sewer system. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund provides a $500,000 grant to improve 7,000 feet of sewer, 21,000 feet having already been completed.
Commissioner Dennis Lewis announced that God and Country Day, scheduled for May 31, would have to be rescheduled due to the Wayne County School Board’s action to schedule a half-day of school on that date and honor Memorial Day. A new date for the celebration has not been set. The Kingsmen, who were not able to accommodate the schedule change, will instead perform at Pikeville Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church.
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