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DWP board approves higher power rates, LA City Council to have final word
John Cruz, a meter reader for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power opens a water meter in the Hollywood Hills on Friday morning, Aug. 7, 2015.
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DWP board approves higher power rates, LA City Council to have final word
The board that oversees water and power in Los Angeles voted unanimously to increase electrical bills Tuesday. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Board of Commissioners approved a similar increase in water bills last month.
The new rates are designed to pass the largest increases to households that use the most water and power.
A Los Angeles home that uses typical amounts — about 1,200 cubic feet of water and 500 kilowatts a month — would see its $130 monthly bill go up about $21 over the five-year period of the increase, according to an example provided by the DWP.
The added revenue on the power side would be used to replace aging power poles and equipment, and to shift away from coal power toward cleaner renewable energy sources like solar.
The new rates have undergone some changes since they were introduced in July. After they were reviewed by the city's independent ratepayer advocate, the proposed power rates were decreased and the charges for water was raised, DWP spokeswoman Michelle Figueroa said.
That review dropped the $900 million budgeted for power projects down to $720 million due to reduced fuel costs and a trimming back in the first two years of the DWP's power system reliability plan. The same review recommended increasing the water projects covered by the rate increases to $330 million from $230 million. That would cover more capital improvement projects to the water system.
The Los Angeles City Council's Energy and Environment Committee will examines the proposed rate schedule. The full council has the power to approve or veto the new rates, but it cannot change them.
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If the City Council approves the new rates within the next two months or so, the new rates would kick in on April 1, Figueroa said.
It would be the first power rate increase since 2012. Water rates went up in 2009.
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