Anaheim : Power Rates to Drop; Water Charges to Climb

There is good news and bad news for Anaheim residents and businesses. The good news is that electricity rates will drop, effective Friday. The bad news is that water rates will rise the same day.

The City Council approved both rate changes Tuesday.

The 5% decrease in electricity rates will mean a monthly savings of about $2.02 for the typical residential customer, Public Utilities Manager Gordon Hoyt said. The average monthly residential bill will drop to $41.54, he said.

Officials expect the new rates to remain unchanged through April, 1988. Hoyt said the rate decrease is partially attributable to Anaheim’s continuing move to decrease its dependence on Southern California Edison Co., which now provides the city with most of its electric power. Recently, Unit 1 of a coal-fuel power plant in Utah--the Intermountain Power Project--began transmitting electricity to Anaheim.

The council also raised water rates 7.5%, despite strong opposition from the Chamber of Commerce.

The average residential customer--using 2,000 cubic feet of water per month--will see an increase of $1.08, to a total of $15.11, said Darrell Ament, a public utilities official.

With the increase--the first in two years--Anaheim’s residential customer will “remain in the lower third of the residential water rates in Orange County,” Ament said. “Commercial and industrial water bills will remain among the lowest in Orange County.”

In a letter to the council, chamber Executive Director Allan B. Hughes asked members to vote against the increase, urging that certain capital-improvement projects be delayed. Hughes also asked that future rate-increase proposals be discussed during budget hearings.

However, only Councilman Ben Bay agreed with the chamber and voted against the water rate hike.