Electricity rates in metro-east town rise for 1st time in 2 years. There’s more to come

Highland residents will be paying a little more for their electricity — this year and in years to come.

Highland operates its own electrical service for residents, and has not raised the rates for two years. But the council voted Feb. 6 to raise the rates by 4%, and acknowledged ongoing rate increases may be necessary as costs are skyrocketing.

Light and Power Director Dan Cook said that even with the increases, Highland residents will be paying significantly less than they would as Ameren customers.

“Ameren is raising rates outrageous amounts,” Cook said.

He pointed out Highland Light and Power is a nonprofit organization that does not provide profit payments to shareholders — unlike many other utilities in the region, including Ameren.

The reason for HLP’s increase is primarily the significant increase in the cost of energy and materials, as well as staff wage increases, according to city staffers. Cook said the cost of replacing a transformer has gone up as much as four times the cost of just a few years ago.

“We are trying to be as judicious as we can to keep the cost down,” he said.

Under the new schedule, residential customers will be charged $15 per month for single-phase service plus $0.0810 per kilowatt-hour. The average increase should be about 4%, which will put Highland’s rates near where they were recommended to be in a cost of service study done seven years ago in 2016, Cook said.

Councilwoman Peggy Bellm said price increases are unfortunately a sign of the times.

“I’d much rather see small increases regularly than a major increase,” she said. “I know all the expenses are going up.”

Cook said it was likely that in the future, they would shift to asking the council for regular, smaller increases rather than waiting 4-7 years in between large increases.

By comparison, Ameren’s current increase and projected increases in the next few years could be as high as 50%, Cook said.

Ameren bills went up an average of $52 a month in June 2022, but the utility corporation projected another 25% increase in energy costs this winter, and has filed a request for more rate hikes that will go through an 11-month review by the Illinois Commerce Commission for a decision in December, according to the State Journal-Register.

The request would bring in $435.6 million in additional revenue for Ameren over four years, according to the Citizens Utility Board, which is calling for the public to protest Ameren’s rate increases with the ICC.

One of the ‘worst months ever’

CUB declared January one of the “worst months ever” for Illinois utility customers, with five major utilities across the state filing for a combined $2.8 billion in rate hikes.

“During a time of sky-high fossil fuel prices, Illinois’ major utilities threaten to make a bad situation worse by hitting their customers with an unprecedented rate-hike barrage. These increases would be a painful blow to consumers already struggling to pay for basic necessities like food and medicine,” CUB Executive Director David Kolata said.

“CUB will review these rate-hike filings to challenge any attempt by the electric and gas utilities to rake in excessive profit rates, and we will fight every penny the companies can’t justify.”

This story was originally published February 15, 2023 at 8:00 AM.