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Needles council approves 2¢ electricity rate cut after power‑purchase account hit threshold
Summary
The City of Needles authorized a power purchase cost adjustment rebate that lowers an over‑hydro rate from 0.1538 to 0.1338 and implements a 2¢ reduction effective Feb. 1, 2025, after the utility’s cost‑recovery account reached its rebate threshold.
The City of Needles approved a power purchase cost adjustment, lowering the over‑hydro rate from 0.1538 to 0.1338 and implementing a 2¢ power‑cost reduction effective Feb. 1, 2025.
City utility staff told the council the adjustment follows the utility’s policy to return money to ratepayers once the power cost adjustment account reaches 20% of the budgeted amount. “That balance reached $1,800,000 in November 2024, and which means that we now have to basically rebate,” a utility official said during the presentation. The council voted to apply the rebate starting Feb. 1.
The council considered the matter as a pulled consent item and approved the motion by roll call. Multiple council members recorded affirmative votes during the roll call.
The utility director credited staff work and the authority’s purchasing strategy for accumulating the surplus that triggers the rebate. He said the mechanism is part of the utility’s formal cost‑adjustment policy and emphasized the rebate as the prescribed next step once the account threshold is met.
Council members thanked staff and moved on to other items on the agenda after the vote.
The action is administrative: no change to the city’s base tariff structure was proposed; this is a one‑time adjustment tied to the power‑purchase cost adjustment account reaching the rebate threshold.
