Utility fuel adjustment charges passed to customers

Higher energy costs mean higher bills for city residents

By JOHN RECH

news@theeveningtimes.com

West Memphis utility commissioners heard that the recent bitter cold weather delivered more than ice and snow. While the city took action to avoid rolling blackouts from the high energy demand across the region, it could not stave off higher fuel costs. Energy demand across the south drove electric prices up.

City Councilman and council’s utility commission liaison Wayne Croom told constituents to expect fuel adjustment charges to appear spread out on electric bills the next couple of months.

Fuel Adjustment charge is calculated by using actual fuel costs to produce electricity and predicted customer usage. Customer electric usage during the record cold snap drove usage much higher than normal. As part of the fuel adjustment calculation, a ‘true-up’ reckoning was set to make sure what the city utility company had paid for fuel costs was billed to customers through the established FAC charge.

The results for the record demand on supply will appear on upcoming bills for city utility customers according to Croom. Croom gave kudos for the utilities’ performance during the storm. Short spot outages due to iced limbs on power lines were presented minor inconveniences. The city averted a rolling black-out experienced elsewhere in north east Arkansas by augmenting supply by running its own generators at its plant in the city.

“After the storm in the city last week I wanted to give the West Memphis Utility Department a job-well-done for allowing the city to maintain the continuity of electric anal and water services without a break in service,” said Croom. “thanks to the West Memphis Utilities for all they did during last weeks unseasonal weather conditions.”

Croom said bills would have an uptick related to the fuel adjustment but the utility department acted to soften the blow by spreading the adjustment out over more than one billing period.

“Consumers should be aware of the old cliché ‘supply and demand’ in reference to the power usage over the ten day period with below 32 degree temperatures,” said Croom. “Don’t be surprised if the fuel adjustment charge increases for the next two months. This will only be a temporary adjustment.”