 |
City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
|
NEWS ADVISORY
|
| SUBJECT: City Light trims rates in time for winter
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
10/31/2005 2:30:00 PM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Alex Fryer (206) 684-8358
Scott Thomsen (206) 386-4233
|
City Light trims rates in time for winter
Wholesale savings passed on to homes and businesses
SEATTLE - Mayor Greg Nickels announced good news for City Light ratepayers
today: the utility will trim rates for homes and businesses thanks to a drop
in wholesale power costs.
City Light bills will drop about 2 percent for residential customers and about
2.6 percent for high-demand industrial customers. The utility’s rates
have gone down 4 percent since March 2002 and will be as low or lower than
any other utility in the Puget Sound region.
“The November decrease is a relatively small one, but every bit helps
when the cost of natural gas and heating oil are soaring,” Nickels said. “We’ve
put City Light back on solid financial ground and the hard work is paying off
for the utility and the ratepayers.”
City Light is taking advantage of a slight decrease in the Bonneville Power
Administration’s wholesale power rates and passing the savings to customers.
With the November decrease, City Light projects its residential rate will average
about 6.54 cents per kilowatt-hour over the course of the next year.
City Light residential customers now pay an average of about $50 per month
for electricity. The 2 percent decrease means a drop of about $1 in the average
monthly cost of electrical service.
Tacoma Power increased rates an average 5.2 percent in April 2005, and Puget
Sound Energy residential electric rates are scheduled to increase 4.4 percent
Nov. 1. Snohomish County Public Utility rates are well above City Light’s.
“It’s fortunate that we can give customers a bit of a break while
staying on track to meet the goals of our financial policies,” said City
Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco.
The utility’s financial policies, adopted earlier this year, call for
reducing the long-term debt-to-capitalization ratio to 60 percent by the end
of 2010. Each year, City Light’s goal is to have enough operating revenue
to cover debt service twice over and contribute to capital expenditures. The
utility has reduced outstanding long-term debt from about $1.7 billion to about
$1.5 billion since 2001.
Visit the mayor’s web site at www.seattle.gov/mayor. Get the mayor’s
inside view on initiatives to promote transportation, public safety, economic
opportunity and healthy communities by signing up for The Nickels Newsletter
at www.seattle.gov/mayor/newsletter_signup.htm
- 30 -
Office of the Mayor
| 
