The Lansdale Electric Services Building on Ninth Street is seen in summer 2021. Photo by Dan Sokil | The Reporter.
Town has not raised rate since 2015
Borough officials are warning residents to be ready for a pending hike in their electric rates.
“We are still recommending a five percent increase, that if all goes well will take effect April 19th,” said councilman Andrew Carroll.
“Even after our five percent increase, we will still be cheaper than both of the investor-owned utilities, to the tune of five to ten percent depending on whose numbers you’re looking at,” he said.
Last fall during the borough’s budget talks, council members debated approving a 0.75-mill increase in the town’s real estate tax rate, along with an increase in the town’s sewer rate already approved in late 2023, and possible raises to the town’s electric rate.
Based on the average customer’s electric bill in September 2024, that customer currently pays $178 per month to the borough, compared to $183 to PPL and $203 to PECO, and that five percent rate hike would increase that bill to $187 per month. The rate hike is needed, town staff said, citing increased electric capacity and transmission costs hitting customers nationwide, plus a need to repair and replace infrastructure and equipment amid supply chain and inflation problems.
Carroll said the electric committee he chairs has continued to discuss fluctuations in the regional and nationwide markets for electricity and ways to minimize the impact to local residents.
“Basically the cost of energy, as we are learning more and more, is going up substantially over the next ten years. There are some things that are completely out of the borough’s control,” he said.
Considerations include a proposed regional consortium joining three other towns in the region with similar local electric departments, generating more power locally to minimize transmission costs, and looking into ways to use contract language in the town’s current purchase power agreement to safeguard against further rate hikes.
“It basically gives our department the flexibility to hold, lower, or raise rates due to fluctuations in the power market, and this is something that could be addressed on a monthly basis,” he said.
“We need a mechanism that will allow us to adjust accordingly,” and further details could be discussed in April and subsequent meetings, he said.
Councilman BJ Breish said he had recently read a report by the Montgomery County Planning Commission detailing what percentage of the town’s residents spend high percentages of their income on rent or housing, and asked if the increase could be postponed.
“Does it have to be in April? Going into summertime, electric usage is going to be high … any way we could delay this until the fall, when everybody’s done using their air conditioner units?” Breish said.
Carroll answered that any delay would widen the gap between the department’s revenues and costs, given the inflation and changes in the electric industry since the last local rate hike approved in late 2014 for 2015.
“The honest answer is, it should’ve been done five years ago. We are behind the gun on this, and we will be working for the next four to five years to catch up,” he said.
“There are other local municipalities that, as of this year, raised their electric rates by 20 percent. We will not be doing that anytime soon, but we need to start with this increase. And there likely will be other increases coming behind it,” Carroll said.
Breish replied by asking if the town could set up payment plans or other aid for those who have trouble with the payments: “Everybody’s getting pinched, everywhere,” he said. Councilwoman Carrie Oglesby answered that concern for residents is how various councils went ten years without approving a rate increase: “It’s unfathomable, really, in this time and age that we haven’t done it in this long.”
‘EAC 100’ goals
The electric committee also discussed a set of goals being developed by the town’s environmental advisory commission, spurring a shift to more renewable sources of energy.
“They’d like us to strive to have 100 percent renewable energy for all of our municipal uses by 2035: meaning, all of borough operations being offset by locally generated, renewable energy,” Carroll said.
“They’d like us to get our fleet to 100 percent electric vehicles, also by 2035, and then as a stretch goal they’d like us to get to 100 percent locally-sourced renewable energy for all businesses and homes in the borough, by 2050,” he said.
That committee discussed the downsides to doing so, including the cost of capital outlays for new vehicles and/or any new solar setups, supply-chain issues in securing such equipment, and performance issues such as trouble using electric vehicles to plow snow.
“These are stated as goals. These are not necessarily things that we will be penalized if we don’t meet. These are standards that they would like us to strive for,” he said.
Meter replacements underway
Carroll and electric Superintendent Andy Krauss also gave an update on monthly department operations, including the installation of roughly 2,000 electric meters for customers around the town over the past four months and replacement of utility poles damaged by winter weather.
“Our contractor knocks on every door, because people work from home and you can’t just go pull their electric out, people get very upset. If you have a newer meter socket, we can bypass the meter and you won’t lose electric at all, and we just swap the meter out, but even in that case the door is knocked, every time, with ample time to respond,” Krauss said. Breish added that he’s had his own meter replaced recently and said it was “a very easy process.”
Lansdale’s electric committee next meets at 7:30 p.m. on April 2 and full council meets immediately afterward at 8:30 p.m., both at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information visit www.Lansdale.org.
This article appears courtesy of a content share agreement between North Penn Now and The Reporter. To read more stories like this, visit https://www.thereporteronline.com
