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Murray Power Department proposes $435 per-upgrade fee to share transformer costs; council questions details
Summary
City power staff proposed new fees and rules for residential electric service upgrades that would charge a per-upgrade contribution (staff cited $435 for an overhead transformer share) to spread transformer replacement costs among customers who upgrade service; council members asked about timing, fee escalation and exemptions.
MURRAY, Utah —1 Aug. 26 —1 The Murray City Power Department presented proposed changes to fees and procedures for residential electric service upgrades at Tuesday's city council meeting, including a per-upgrade charge intended to share the eventual cost of transformer replacement among customers who request larger services.
Greg Belong of the power department said the utility has seen a surge of residential upgrade requests (for example, 100-amp to 200-amp services). Under the proposed policy, a customer applying for an upgrade on an overhead transformer would pay a standard contribution (staff cited $435 as an example) that would be applied to a shared fund; when a transformer replacement becomes necessary, those contributions would reduce the single-party replacement burden.
City council members asked practical and fairness questions: whether the $435 amount would be fixed or would change for later customers, how long a later customer could be charged the current fee if the transformer is replaced years later, and whether upgrades would be rebated if future costs change. Staff responded that the fee charged would be whatever the adopted fee is at the time a later customer applies; the fee would be administratively adjusted as rates change.
Other proposed clarifications include automating work in the city—1s building-permit software (e360) to streamline approvals, stricter treatment of line extensions (reverting to full cost reimbursement rather than past incentives) and preserving the city's prohibition on taking power and reselling it to tenants at a markup (for example, mobile-home-park resale of power). Staff said they plan to add the fee and process into the permitting workflow so upgrades would be easier to track.
Council members also raised consumer-facing questions: how upgrades affect resale, whether homebuyers assume previously paid fees, and how the city would track payments for individual properties. Utilities staff said records would be kept with the parcel's account so future owners would not be double-charged. The council did not vote on an ordinance or fee schedule; staff said they would return with specific fee schedules and proposed language for council adoption.
