Commercial, Industrial Power Rates to Be Cut

Electricity rates will be reduced for industrial and commercial customers of Anaheim’s Public Utilities Department under a restructuring plan that the City Council approved this week. Residential bills will not change.

Starting March 1, industrial rates will be cut by 5% and commercial rates by 2%.

The move is aimed at keeping the prices Anaheim charges for electric power lower than those charged by Southern California Edison.

“It’s in the long-term best interest of the [Anaheim] utility and all of its customers to see that rates remain competitive,” said Edward K. Aghjayan, general manager of the Public Utilities Department.

The reductions were recommended by Standard & Poor’s Corp., the national agency that monitors and rates bonds issued by the city-owned utility.

Also endorsing the cuts was the Public Utilities Board, an advisory group to the City Council.

Lower bills for industrial and commercial customers will translate into an estimated revenue loss of $1.3 million for Anaheim during the 1995-96 fiscal year, and a loss of $4 million each year thereafter.

However, those losses will be completely offset by a series of cost-cutting measures undertaken by the department, Aghjayan said, with the bulk of savings coming from lower prices the city has to pay its power suppliers.

Additional savings would be realized if the department follows through on a proposal to eliminate seven staff positions during the 1996-97 fiscal year.

In a related action, the department plans to conduct a study this summer to determine whether the cost of providing electric service to all of its customers is being fully recovered.