Many residents in Red Bud have been surprised by their utility bills the past few months and have been asking city hall for answers.
In addition to explaining the reasoning for why some residents had higher bills at the July committee meetings, City Superintendent Josh Eckart also further explained in a pair of press releases this week.
In a nutshell, the main factors for the increase in utility bills are a decrease in system demand and increased residential usage.
In March, April and early May, there was dramatic drop in the overall system electrical usage as factories, businesses and schools were closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the weather in April and May was mild.
“Our utility’s fixed costs (related to things like transmissions and distribution, operation of generation assets, equipment and maintenance costs, etc.) remained the same, but utilities had dramatically lower energy sales with which to generate revenues to pay the bills,” Eckart explained in the press release. “With fewer sales, the unit cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) rises.”
For more on the city utility bills, please see this week’s print edition.