Power rates are likely to rise for customers of one local utility but with the promise there are new options to lower bills.
Electricity to homes on Seattle City Light would go up an average of about $4 or 4.5% a month in 2023 and again in 2024 under a plan passed by the City Council’s Economic Development, Technology, and City Light Committee. The proposal would also create a basic service charge for non-residential customers to cover overhead costs, like billing, customer service and meter reading that would otherwise just be included in the power rates. It’s a move the chair of City Light’s review panel says provides more transparency.
Council member, Sara Nelson, says City Light has a pattern in recent years of reducing or eliminating rate increases when it saves money, “and at the same time, costs for generating and distributing electricity went up significantly in the last three years,” Nelson says, “and inflation keeps driving it up.” Nelson pointed to increased costs for materials, like copper. Council Member Dan Strauss also noted that when City Light spends less than anticipated buying its wholesale electricity from the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), it passes those savings along to its customers.
The rate schedule proposal also includes a new, voluntary “time of day” rate program, which would let customers decide to pay less if they wait to use most of their power outside peak demand times, when rates are lower, and how much electricity they want to or have to use during peak times, when the rates will be higher. City Light officials also pointed out that it can achieve some of those savings from BPA when customers use less power at peak times and more off-peak electricity.
The committee also heard a proposal for more cameras around Seattle, but these aren’t surveillance cameras to monitor crime. They would be aimed at TV and movie actors.
After speaking at the recent Seattle Film Summit, Council Member Nelson says Montana’s film commissioner told her the industry won’t take the city seriously without a film commission.
So, the ordinance before a council committee would create such a commission. It’s a proposal that has the support of the King County Executive’s director of creative economy and recovery and Seattle International Film Festival director, Tom Mara. They both say a film commission could not only foster more living wage jobs, and line up with what’s happening with King County and the state, which has $15 million dollars in production tax incentives, but the commission would also be tasked with making sure productions meet gender and racial equity standards.
Both measures received unanimous votes from the committee. They come before the full city council on Tuesday, September 20th.
