Council to Consider Electricity Rate Cuts

To help the city’s electric utility remain competitive with Southern California Edison’s, the City Council will consider reducing the rates that it charges to commercial and industrial customers.

The plan, endorsed by the city Public Utilities Board, would decrease rates by 2% for commercial users and 5% for industrial users, effective March 1.

The reductions were proposed in response to rate cuts planned by Southern California Edison.

If adopted by the council, the new rates would reduce city revenue by $1.3 million in the current fiscal year and by $4 million in subsequent years, officials said.

Those revenue losses would be offset, however, by a series of cost-saving measures implemented by the city-owned utility, according to a report by Edward K. Aghjayan, Anaheim’s public utilities general manager.

The bulk of the savings would come from reduced prices paid to the city’s suppliers of electric power, according to the report, and from eliminating seven staff positions from the utility department during fiscal 1996-97.

In a related move, the department plans to conduct a study this summer to determine if the city is recovering the costs of providing electricity to its various customer classifications.

The department also intends to form a citizen advisory committee next fall to make recommendations to the utilities board and the City Council on future rate proposals.

The revenue reduction will be the topic for a council workshop at 3 p.m. today.

Action on the issue could follow at the council meeting at 5 p.m. in Council Chambers, 200 S. Anaheim Blvd.