City Council approves changes to distribution tariff for 2011

November 30, 2010

Red Deer residents will see an increase on their electricity delivery bills starting January 1, 2011.

Red Deer City Council approved the rate adjustments to the distribution tariff effective January 1, 2011. This includes adjustments to the distribution access charge, the local access fee and the Balancing Pool rebate.

“One of the rate-setting principles is that rates have to match the cost. There will be an increase to our rates forecasted for 2011, driven by increases in costs to both the transmission and distribution components. As a result the wire charges would have to be adjusted to reflect the cost,” said Ligong Gan, Manager of the Electric Light & Power department (EL&P).

The increase to the provincial transmission charge is 2.4 per cent and the increase to the local distribution charge is 3.1 per cent. The combined effect of the transmission and distribution rate increase is 5.5 per cent, or $1.42 per month, for an average household.

There is a 1 per cent increase to the local access fee or $0.16 per month for an average household. This is a charge levied by the municipality to the electric users as a franchise fee for the use of municipal infrastructure and facilities to install and maintain the electric distribution grid.

The Balancing Pool rebate is given to consumers by the Alberta Balancing Pool which is responsible for ensuring the benefits of the deregulated power industry are retained by Alberta consumers. For 2011, the Balancing Pool forecasted a $0.002 refund to all consumers in Alberta, including all Red Deer customers.

“At EL&P, our mandate is to provide reliable and cost-effective utility services to Red Deer customers. The matter of fact is that our rates continue to be very competitive compared with many other areas in Alberta with the rate increase”, said Gan, “With the approved new rate, we will be able to continue to provide services to customer at a quality level expected by customers”.

-end-

For more information, please contact:

Ligong Gan
Manager, Electric Light & Power
The City of Red Deer
403-342-8274