Light
Growth and a long overdue rate increase have helped Cheney’s Light Department from dipping further into its reserves.
At the City Council’s Oct. 27 meeting, Light Department Director Steve Boorman told the council revenues and expenses are expected to jump 8.79 percent, $769,800, to a projected $9,528,700 in 2016. The largest portion of revenues come from utility service charges and are projected to increase by 20 percent, $1,552,200, to $9,184,500.
That jump is due to a 6 percent rate increase approved by the City Council last April, the first increase in electrical charges to residents in 14 years. Those rate adjustments, while approved in 2015, were not reflected in the 2015 overall department budget of $8,758,900.
Of those projected 2016 revenues, $3.96 million will come from residential charges while $2.128 million will come from the city’s largest single user Eastern Washington University.
Boorman told the council that 70 percent of the department’s expenses stem from buying power, which is projected to be $6,280,400 in 2016, a 14.45 percent increase. The other major expenses are maintenance and operations, up 8.42 percent to just over $1.55 million, and salaries and benefits, up 3.56 percent to $1,145,200.
Boorman ticked off a list of department accomplishments in 2015, including a number of pole replacements and new meter installations, rerouting a main feeder around the Cheney Trading Company sign and installing service in the first phase of the Harvest Bluff development along with putting in the “backbone” for phase two.
Boorman said they are looking forward to that build out as a goal in the coming year, along with installing 120 new meters in the Eagle Point apartments, continuing the GIS-based pole inventory system and implement the fixed network meter reading system.
Some of the $125,000 in capital projects anticipated in 2016 are replacing backyard poles north of Oakland Street and replacing some underground equipment. Of the $142,500 in projected capital equipment, $70,000 involves purchasing a 10,000-pound mini-excavator.
The city is also awaiting final word on funding from the state’s Transportation Improvement Board that would cover most of a project to convert 535 existing high pressure sodium (HPS) light fixtures to the more energy efficient light emitting diode, LED, fixtures, with the balance likely covered by Bonneville Power Administration funding.
“If that comes through, we’ll want to do about $300,000 in street lights,” Boorman said. “If not, we’ll pluck away at it.”
Boorman also told the council that a future capital project will be replacing voltage regulators at the city’s two substations. The process involves swapping out installed regulators with new or refurbished models and then having the uninstalled regulators refurbished, either on site or at a repair facility.
“Those are something that will need to be pulled out and upgraded over the next couple of years,” Boorman said.
In an interview Monday, Nov. 2, Boorman said voltage regulators usually run about $15,000 per phase. At three phases per bank of regulators, and five banks total, the city’s beginning price for the work starts at around $225,000.
John McCallum can be reached at [email protected].
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