NEWS 25 WEHT Evansville, Henderson, OwensboroAdditional OMU Rate Increases Not Ruled Out

Additional OMU Rate Increases Not Ruled Out

story by Corey Allan

OWENSBORO - Owensboro Municipal Utilities is not where it hoped to be after raising its electric base rate to customers.

A two phase rate increase for OMU customers was suppose to help bring operating revenues up, but the first six months of the increase show the city utility revenue is below projections.

"The second step went into effect in January so we're still evaluating that, and we'll be reporting back as we more data on that," said OMU president Stan Conn.

Conn says since phase one went into effect last June, OMU billed customers an additional $2.3 million, while cutting its budget over a million. But in the, OMU ended up coming up a million dollars short of projections. Conn says by summer, they should know if winter played a part in this or if changes need to be made.

"At that point we'll know if this is an on going problem, or if this is more of a one year blip we can deal with," said Conn.

But if this becomes an on going problem, will OMU need to raise rates again?

"We'll have to look at that," said Conn. "We'll be able to make a call on that probably before we come back in December and talk to them. That's part of what we'll be looking at this summer. No projections at this point."

OMU will start selling excess power on the open market starting May 17, but initial income Conn says will be small.

"We don't anticipate a lot of strong benefits in this first year because there are a lot of costs involved in getting us prepared for the market," said Conn.

Conn will report back to the city commission at the end of the year, but anything significant to report he says will be immediate.