Dear colleagues, thank you for your responses. Attached is the survey on
spreadsheet and below is a response I received from Alameda Power & Telecom.
________________________________________________________________________
ALAMEDA POWER & TELECOM MESSAGE:
Dear John
As a municipal utility perhaps we can offer some insights or alternative
solutions.
The first question to ask is did your usage remain the same in each billing
month as in calendar year 1999? Your bill is actually for several products
or services; Generation (that high cost market price stuff), transmission
(getting from the generator to the local substation) and distribution
(getting from the local substation to your meters). The price per
kilowatt-hour for transmission and distribution should be pretty much the
same year-to-year. Which means the generation price per kWh is the true
variable. My suggestion is to pay for your transmission and distribution
per kWh at their current price BUT only pay about 3 - 4 cents per kWh for
the generation portion. If you have insufficient staff to be able to do
this analysis there are several consultants who can produce the work.
Check the Calif. Municipal Utilities Association web site (www.cmua.org).
A level payment plan does not relieve you of anything except price spikes
in the summer. Does this really match your general fund cash flow? If in
fact the state or feds produce some "bill relief" for cities you may miss
out by levelizing your payments. No one has the answers to this as yet.
Certainly, energy audits are an excellent idea. My guess is the SDG&E will
provide them free of charge. You may also want to investigate some of the
grants from the Calif. Energy Commission to investigate and install energy
conversation projects or programs. These could range from just being on
the correct tariff up to rewiring or relamping buildings to gain
efficiencies or becoming a generator (e.g. solar photovoltaic or wind
turbines). The Calif. Energy Commission has a web site with some useful
information in this arena.
Good Luck!
JuelleAnn Boyer
Alameda Power & Telecom
tel: 510.748.3910
Dear colleagues:
The City Manager/Council is interested to know what other cities are doing
to deal with the rising costs of power. Our local utility provider (SDG&E)
has offered some "relief" to San Diego area cities as follows:
1. Defer increases, pay the amount paid last fiscal year;
2. Level payment plan for current fiscal year; and
3. Utility efficiency audit.
With the existing power market what it is, there is no real economic relief
from deferring or leveling the high utility costs. An efficiency audit is
a
good idea, however.
We would like to know what strategies other cities are taking to meet the
rising utility costs in the budget. One suggestion that was made was "not
paying the utility bill at all", reflecting the strong emotional side of
this deregulated power market issue.
Your responses would be appreciated. Survey results will be posted by
Friday Sept 8th.
Thank you.
John Herrera, Administrative Services Director/Treasurer
City of Imperial Beach
825 Imperial Beach Blvd
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
(619) 628-1361
____________________________________________________________________________
John Herrera, Administrative Services Director/Treasurer
City of Imperial Beach
825 Imperial Beach Blvd
Imperial Beach, CA 91932
(619) 628-1361
Sept 11, 2000 Utility Cost Issue.xls
