Westminster Power Rates to rise in June

Electric power customers in the City of Westminster will see a 7.6% increase on their June bills.  The increase is being attributed to the city’s wholesale supplier, Piedmont Municipal Power Authority, announcement that they would be raising their rates, explains Westminster City Administrator David Smith.  “Well, as generally happens the cost of things go up and I think everybody can see costs of whether it is gasoline or other things have gone up.  The cost of operating a power generation plant goes up as well and as those costs go up then from a wholesale side we see that increase coming to the city and as a result of that the city council has to decide if they can absorb it so to speak or they have to pass it along.  In this particular case, the city council voted to pass along the increase.  We are going to be experiencing 7.6% increase in the wholesale costs and so the council voted to pass that 7.6% along in the form of a retail rate increase.” The increase from the city’s wholesale supplier will show up in May, but will reflect on retail customers’ bills in June. Tuesday night, the Westminster City Council said they could see nowhere else in the city’s budget to absorb the new charge, without making drastic cuts.