CITY OF SEATTLE
ORDINANCE __________________
COUNCIL BILL __________________
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AN ORDINANCE relating to the City Light Department; amending rates, terms, and conditions for the use and sale of electricity supplied by the City Light Department for 2022, 2023, and 2024; amending Sections 21.49.020, 21.49.030, 21.49.052, 21.49.055, 21.49.057, 21.49.058, 21.49.060, 21.49.065, 21.49.083, 21.49.085, and 21.49.086 of the Seattle Municipal Code.
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WHEREAS, the City Light Department's Adopted 2023-2028 Strategic Plan outlines average rate increases of 4.5 percent in both 2023 and 2024; and
WHEREAS, the Department has completed a cost of service study that identifies the amount of revenue to be collected from each customer rate class; and
WHEREAS, a report on rate design completed jointly by the Department and the City Light Review Panel and presented to the City Council in 2019 and memorialized in Clerk File 321222 identified near term priorities to (1) adjust residential block rates to be closer to actual cost and facilitate other rate design concepts, (2) deploy time-of-use rates on a voluntary basis to help manage power demands at peak time and give customers options to reduce their costs, and (3) adjust the calculation of basic customer charges to reflect the fixed costs associated with serving individual customers; and
WHEREAS, the Department has served customers in unincorporated King County under terms of an expired franchise agreement for many years, and a new agreement is expected to be ratified in 2022 that would authorize an 8 percent rate differential for customers located in unincorporated King County; and
WHEREAS, retail rates for customers outside Seattle vary only by municipal utility taxes, franchise differentials outlined in franchise agreements, and undergrounding charges; and
WHEREAS, to simplify rate schedules customers outside Seattle shall be put on the same rate schedule starting in 2023 and franchise differentials, utility taxes and unde...
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