Bowling Green electric customers will be paying a little less on their bills starting Tuesday.
The city’s Board of Public Utilities Wednesday night approved a power cost adjustment rebate for the next
10 months and an electric base rate power supply cost adjustment to account for the savings.
Director of Utilities Kevin Maynard said the changes will amount to $3.93 a month for residential
customers who use 650 kilowatt hours a month. Adjustments affect all customer classifications.
Maynard told the BPU that the rebate represents an amount that was over-collected in 2010. When the
adjustment was made last year for 2009 it caused an increase in bills because not enough money had been
collected to cover power supply costs. "We started ratcheting back the PCA last summer but still
ended up collecting too much money," he said.
He described setting the power cost adjustment as an "inexact science" because the forecasts
are based on weather, the economy and power supply costs, none of which the city can control. "Then
add in that we get the bills after the fact and we have to put the PCA on the next month’s bill to
recover the costs. If August is hot (lots of power sold) and then September is cool (not so much power
sold), it is hard to recover the cost of power because the usage does not match."
The adjustment in the base rate power supply was made because one project, a new building to combine
water, sewer and electric operations, has been put on the shelf, and costs for electrical work on North
Main Street will be less than expected. It has also been determined that sufficient reserves are
available to handle emergencies.
The board also:
¥ Asked city council to seek new bids for tree trimming services because a three-year contract for the
work has expired. Utility officials said the benefit of the tree contract was demonstrated during the
recent ice storm when outages were at a minimum on the city’s system.
¥ Asked council to request qualifications from firms interested in developing a study of the city’s
electric distribution system. The last study is about 10 years old. Maynard said the study is needed to
help properly plan for the future needs of the system.
¥ Heard that the reverse osmosis system at the water treatment plant should be in service during the week
of March 7.
¥ Heard from Mayor John B. Quinn that the city received a letter from Bennett Enterprises (Big Boy)
praising the city’s efforts in keeping the business apprised of work being done on the North Main
project. "We try to do our best to keep the merchants happy," Quinn said.
¥ Learned the East Gypsy Lane water main project is nearing completion. The line gives the city a second
connection under Interstate 75.