Roseville Electric customers may soon see a new 8% surcharge on bills
ROSEVILLE — Roseville Electric said it's tried to keep rising costs from filtering down to customers, but the price hike it's being forced to pay for energy is just too much. That's why some will soon be seeing a double-digit rate increase on their electric bills.
Inflation is already hitting families hard, and now you can add some people's power bills to the growing list of growing costs.
"Right now, while it's cold, bundling up in the house, [I] keep my energy costs down as much as I can," said Janet Hayes, a Roseville Electric customer.
But customers in Roseville will soon be seeing bigger bills.
The city's utility already approved a 3% increase in January of this year and another 3% beginning next month.
So why is Roseville Electric asking for another 8% rate surcharge now?
"Based on the energy market increases we've been seeing, this is a necessary measure for us to maintain the level of service," said Erin Frye with Roseville Electric.
Roseville generates half of its power from natural gas, and the company says energy supply costs have risen 300 percent — jumping from $35 two years ago up to $90 now.
"It's been dramatic. It's been rapid for us," Frye said.
The utility said it has already tried to keep costs low for customers.
"We have gone into our rate stabilization fund to offset some of these increases, but we can't dip into it more than we have," Frye said.
Roseville Electric said the back-to-back bill increases add up to about an extra $168 a year for homeowners, $3,600 more a year for a medium-sized business and $122,000 a year for industrial customers.
"We don't take that lightly. We know that there's so many impacts here but we still are the lowest provider in the region," Frye said.
This proposed new surcharge is supposed to only last 23 months.
"That gives us time to really evaluate is this transitory or is this a more permanent upward trend in the industry," Frye said.
But many people point out the timing of this increase adds to that powerless feeling when times are already tough.
"Even those of us that are employed are still struggling, so i can't imagine how other people are going to do it," Hayes said.
The Roseville City Council will be discussing the proposed surcharge on Wednesday. Customers who are enrolled in the utilities low-income program will not be impacted.
