EXTRA CONTENT: CUC to raise electric rates by 11 percent in July

See information on the rate increase by clicking here.

Electric customers with Corbin’s City Utilities Commission (CUC) can expect a sharp rate increase starting in July, but local officials say they are simply passing on the increased cost of wholesale power to consumers.

A public hearing on the impending rate increase was held at Corbin City Hall last Tuesday. No one from the community attended.

Two of the three-member CUC Board of Directors viewed a brief Power Point presentation created by R.W. Beck, a Seattle based consulting firm, explaining the need for an 11 percent rate increase to retail customers. CUC purchases its power from Kentucky Utilities that has been asking federal regulators for a rate increase since last year. A conglomerate of 12 municipal energy providers that buy power from KU protested the increases.

"It was originally supposed to go up January 1," said CUC General Manager Ron Herd. "The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission made them wait until July."

Herd said KU actually is raising rates twice, once by three percent last month and again by eight percent in July. The CUC Board of Directors decided to simply apply the increases to its customers all at once in July.

The increases in wholesale power will increase CUC’s annual expense for energy by about $520,000, R.W. Beck estimates. CUC’s average residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt hours per month will see a $64 bill raise by $7 to $71. The utilities’ average small "general service" customers using 2,000 kilowatt hours per month will see a $136 monthly bill increase $15 to $151. Officials say CUC’s rates will still remain well below other regional power providers.

Herd said customer bills after July will have a new "power cost adjustment" instead of the standard fuel adjustment on current bills. Fuel adjustments were used to help CUC recover the cost of increases in wholesale power needs during peak periods when KU is forced to use natural gas turbines to meet energy demands, among other expenses. The power cost adjustment will take that into account, and will also include increases to KU’s base rate every July.

CUC’s board will meet again June 9 to review and approve the rate increase.