{"id":1336,"date":"2019-08-13T10:16:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=1336"},"modified":"2019-08-13T10:17:07","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T14:17:07","slug":"could-demand-pricing-be-future-for-lakeland-electric-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/08\/13\/could-demand-pricing-be-future-for-lakeland-electric-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Could demand pricing be future for Lakeland Electric users?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A proposed change to Lakeland Electric’s billing structure\ncould have residents thinking twice about what time it is before flipping the\nswitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Daryl Johnson, a member of Lakeland’s Utility Committee,\nsuggested that the city-owned utility should move to push residential customers\nonto a demand-based pricing structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to start looking at a different fee structure,\nwhich is a demand structure, in which you pay more when you use electric during\nthe ‘wrong time’,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reason is simple: it’s the way the industry is\ngoing in order to shave down your peak demand.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city’s peak electric demand will play a key role in\ndetermining the utility’s cost of replacing coal-fired C.D. McIntosh Unit 3,\nwhich it plans to shutter by the fall of 2024. Ron Kremann, LE’s special\nprojects manager, said the utility will need to figure out another way to\ngenerate 144 megawatts to meet existing power demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we look forward to a situation where we are replacing\nour generation, we need to think how we can adjust our rate structure to get\npeople thinking about what peak demand is,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIf they come in at\nthe wrong time, they can create problems.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Electric must build a new plant or generator to\nensure it can meet customers’ energy demands at all times, even when it spikes\nin late afternoon during a summer heat wave, according to utility spokesman\nChris Neal. If the utility could get customers to change their habits,\nswitching use of major appliances to non-peak hours, it would reduce the city’s\npeak demand. To lighten the load would also lower the cost of replacing Unit 3.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a power company could figure out how to shave their\npeaks and make demand even throughout the day, they could save their customers\nlots of money by not having to have as much generation capacity,” Neal\nsaid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lakeland Electric already offers both a Demand and a \u201cShift\nto Save\u201d pricing option to its more than 109,000 residential customers.\nHowever, less than 2% of residential users elect to be billed under those plans,\naccording to Neal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the Demand pricing plan, homeowners generally pay a\nlower rate for kilowatt hours used. However, a premium of $6 per\nkilowatt will be charged for the singular 15-minute time frame during peak\nhours \u2014 defined as 1 to 8 p.m. in the summer and 6 to 10 a.m. in the winter \u2014\nthat the customer uses the most energy each month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, the Shift to Save pricing plan charges\ncustomers a different rate based on whether their electricity use on weekdays\nis set on-peak or off-peak hours, while weekends and some major holidays are\nall considered off-peak and charged at a lower rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers can find a rate calculator on Lakeland Electric’s\nwebsite that will tell them what plan will result in the lowest bill for them\nbased on their current power use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gina Jacobi, LE’s assistant general manager for fiscal\noperations, has repeatedly told city commissioners that the utility will look\nto reevaluate whether its current electric rates are adequate to cover its\ncosts. Lakeland Electric’s proposed fiscal year 2020 budget is projected to\nresult in a $6.6 million loss as operational and maintenance costs\noutpace estimated annual revenue. Neal said the utility routinely looks at and\nreevaluates its rate structures when performing services studies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A proposed change to Lakeland Electric’s billing structure could have residents thinking twice about what time it is before flipping the switch. Daryl Johnson, a member of Lakeland’s Utility Committee,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"14","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}