Energy Services Update
The Clark Public Utilities Board of Commissioners recently approved an electric service rate increase across all customer classes, effective March 1, 2024.
The utility is an at-cost, nonprofit public utility and rates have not changed since 2011. This adjustment is required to balance the 2024 budget which included higher power supply costs due to increasingly frequent extreme weather events and compliance with carbon reduction and renewable energy requirements. Notably, the high cost of providing energy during the recent extreme winter weather of January 12-19 added an estimated $26 million to the utility’s 2024 net operating costs. As a nonprofit utility, budgets are set to break even. After 13 years of steady rates, an increase was required.
“Nearly 70 cents of every dollar spent by this utility is allocated to generating or purchasing, and transmitting energy,” said Clark Public Utilities Commission President Jim Malinowski. “These costs continue to rise and are increasingly volatile with more frequent weather events, both hot and cold, and regulatory constraints.”
Charges will increase for all customer classes. Industrial and most commercial customers will maintain basic charges last set in 2011, with adjusted per kilowatt-hour and demand charges as determined by the cost of service analysis rebalancing model for 2024 and 2025.
Effective March 1, 2024 electric rates for each customer class will be:
• Residential Basic Charge – $19/month and Energy Charge – $0.0879/kWh
• Commercial Schedules 33, 34, 36 and 38 Basic Charge – $35/month, Energy Charge – $0.0833/kWh and Demand Charge – $9.29/kW-month (> 30kW)
• Commercial Schedule 134 Basic Charge – $58/month, Energy Charge – $0.0500/kWh and Demand Charge – $9.29/kW-month
• Commercial Schedule 234 Basic Charge – $58/month, Energy Charge – $0.0485/kWh and Demand Charge – $9.02/kW-month
• Industrial Schedule 185 Basic Charge – $200/month, Energy Charge – $0.0500/kWh and Demand Charge – $9.29/kW-month
• Industrial Schedule 285 Basic Charge – $200/month, Energy Charge – $0.0490/kWh and Demand Charge – $9.02/kW-month
• Industrial Schedule 385 Basic Charge – $200/month, Energy Charge – $0.0480/kWh and Demand Charge – $6.27/kW-month
Contact your Key Accounts Manager with questions. Your Key Accounts Manager is here to help with information and act as your energy partner to help you better understand your businesses energy usage and ways to reduce waste.
Steve Andersen to Lead Clark Public Utilities Energy Resources Department Starting April 2024
As Clark Public Utilities congratulates Director of Energy Resources, Dan Bedbury, on his upcoming retirement at the end of March, CEO and General Manager Lena Wittler has announced that the utility’s current Power Manager, Steve Andersen, will transition to the role of Director of Energy Resources beginning April 1, 2024.
Mr. Anderson joined Clark Public Utilities as a full time employee in 2021, following decades of consulting work with the utility’s power supply and planning team. He has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington and 25 years of experience developing wholesale power supply pricing and cost analysis, financial analysis, integrated resource planning, and rate design for electric utilities including Clark Public Utilities.
“During a time of historically extreme weather patterns, a volatile power market and an increasingly complex regulatory landscape as utilities transition to clean energy sources, Steve brings deep experience in all of these areas as it relates specifically to customer-owned, nonprofit power providers here in the Pacific Northwest,” Ms. Wittler said. “I appreciate that he and Mr. Bedbury will have the next two months to transition the team for continued stability and success, and look forward to welcoming Steve to our senior leadership team in the spring.”
The Energy Resources department includes Power Supply, Energy Services, River Road Generating Plant, Clean Energy Program Management, and Energy Resources Administrative Services.