Public comments on proposed changes to the North Little Rock Electric Department's rate structure will lead off this week's City Council meeting at 6 p.m. Monday.
The restructuring of rates isn't a flat percentage rise to what customers pay on their monthly bills, but a redesign of how the utility charges for power. The proposal would lower usage rates while increasing the basic charge for service.
While utility representatives have said "average" users of electricity won't feel much effect from the changes, customers who use the least and most power at their homes or businesses will likely see bill increases because of a change in the charge for usage per kilowatt-hour.
The North Little Rock Electric Department has about 38,000 customers in North Little Rock and in a portion of neighboring Sherwood.
Anyone wanting to comment at the public hearing must sign in with the city clerk before the council meeting. A summary of the proposed changes and resulting costs on electric bills is available at nlrelectric.com.
The council is to vote on the proposal Monday after the public comment period.
"If we get a whole lot of people, we'll probably have to continue the public hearing and set it for an early hearing again like last time," utility attorney Jason Carter said. "We'll try to give everybody an opportunity to speak without running too late into the evening."
Carter made a presentation on the proposal, and only council members asked questions, during a special meeting held 30 minutes before the council's previous regular meeting two weeks ago.
Carter also spoke Thursday evening to about a dozen members of the city's Neighborhood Coalition, a group Mayor Joe Smith established in 2013 that consists of representatives from neighborhood associations citywide.
"Some people there just wanted to understand it and really wanted more information on what was going on and what the impact would be on them," Carter said Friday. "I think they seemed more comfortable with it the more we talked about it."
The proposed changes in the utility's rate structures follow the city's hiring of Utility Financial Solutions LLC of Holland, Mich., to analyze the electric department's rates and costs.
If approved, the new rate structure will be applied in three increments starting Oct. 1. The next two increments would take effect Oct. 1, 2019, and Oct. 1, 2020.
Changes include increasing the fixed rate the utility charges all customers. A separate rate charged per kilowatt-hour, or for the amount of electricity actually used, would go down under the proposal.
In the presentation to the council two weeks ago, Carter showed charts defining an average residential user as consuming 1,000 kwh per month. Those customers would have a net reduction of $1.02 on their monthly bills the first year and 93 cents the second year.
In the third year, those same bills would go back up by $1.78, resulting in net reduction of 17 cents per month at the end of the three-year period over which the changes are put into place.
The people who use the most power -- generally those using 1,500 to 1,700 kwh monthly -- would see increases, though, as well as low-end customers who only use 500 to 700 kwh per month.
Those at the low end of that scale, using 500 kwh per month, would see increases each of the three years, with a net rise of $5.14 monthly, according to Carter's presentation. For the high-end consumers, using 1,700 kwh per month, increases in each of the three years would result in a total increase of $16.43 per month.
"The customer charge will gradually increase while the rate charged for energy gradually decreases," Jill Ponder, the utility's energy services manager, said in an email last week. "We also think the new rates will result in a bill that is easier to understand."
Those using higher amounts of power will also see a charge for a "declining block rate" removed from their bills. The declining block rate has lowered the rate charged to customers as more electricity is used, something Carter said is an outdated practice that isn't conducive to encouraging customers to conserve power.
A flat rate charge is to replace that discount, resulting in those bills going up, Carter said.
"I just want people to feel like we're not hiding the ball," Carter said of his efforts to explain the effects of the proposal. "Public trust is important. We want to help people understand what we're doing and why we're doing it."
Metro on 04/22/2018