Anaheim : Plan to Stabilize Utility Rates Until 1987 OKd

City officials will use a $7.4-million refund from Southern California Edison Co. to offset potential utility-rate increases, council members decided this week.

Under a plan adopted Tuesday, residents can expect their electricity bills to remain stable through July, 1987, said Gordon Hoyt, the city’s public utilities general manager.

The $7.4 million in refunds, in addition to another $11.3 million the city received last year, will be placed in a fund used to stabilize rates, City Council members agreed Tuesday.

Anaheim, which operates its own utility, buys most of its energy from Edison at wholesale rates. In past years, Edison increased those rates, which prompted lawsuits by the city. Anaheim won several such court cases, creating refunds for its utility customers.

Last October, the council approved an interim procedure that allows money that is returned by Edison to be placed in a “rate stabilization account.” Money from that fund is used to fill any gaps in revenues and keep the electricity rates constant. City officials agreed this week to keep the account on a permanent basis.

By the end of 1987, that account may grow by another $35 million as a result of another case the city is negotiating with Edison, Hoyt said.

Officials expect the account’s current balance to last until January, 1988, if Anaheim’s rates are kept constant through June, 1987, at which time they would be increased by 5.1%. With the 1987 increase, Anaheim’s rates would be 5% below Edison’s retail electric rates, Hoyt said.

If the expected additional refunds do not come through, “the existing refund money will run out, and Anaheim’s electric rates would need to be increased about 9.3% in February, 1988,” Hoyt wrote in a report to the council.

With the additional funds, “rates may be held constant or increased gradually until the refund money runs out, which could be in 1989 or later,” he wrote.

While the city continues to argue several cases before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, it also is striving to lower its dependency on Edison, officials said. The city, for example, now owns 3.16% of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and 13.225% of the coal-fueled Intermountain Power Project, which will go into commercial operation in July.