“The rate increase would effect all cities that retained original jurisdiction over rate increases,” said City Finance Director Peggy Walker. “Those increases would have gone into effect Aug. 8, so this council had until that date to either deny or suspend the increase. If the council had taken no action, it would have gone into effect automatically.
“The city has chosen to suspend the increase. We're not at the point of denying because we haven't checked to see if it's truly a valid rate increase. We knew Oncor would be looking at a full rate review study and we expected that, but we want to have time to actually review it and see if it's infrastructure they raising rates for, if it's operating costs or some combination of the two. That way we can determine if those rate increases are valid based on their (Oncor's) expenses.”
Understanding the impact the rate increase would have on the citizens of Big Spring is no easy matter, according to Walker, especially when the documentation Oncor has provided doesn't seem to match up.
“The rate increase would effect every citizen in the city that uses Oncor. They (Oncor) sent an information packet to the city of Big Spring to try to get us onboard,” said Walker. “According to that literature, the rate increase would translate into a 2.7 percent — which amounts to $5.09 to the average consumer — increase for residential customers. However, in the information they provided to the state's utility commission shows the residential rate increase as 17.6 percent. So it's really hard to say at this point what the effect will be on customers.”
Walker said the matter will be turned over to the Lloyd Gosselink Law Firm, which represents the steering committee, but whether or not the increase is approved, local customers can expect their bills to begin going up Jan. 1.
“We'll just have to wait and see what happens with the rate increase,” said Walker. “However, regardless of what happens with this, Oncor will be raising its rates Jan. 1 to support an advanced metering program, which was approved by the state. That increase will cost residential customers an additional $2.29 per month and non-residential customers $3.90 per month, and will remain in effect for the next 11 years.”
