Lodi customers might see electricity savings

Were you sweating about the upcoming electric bill while you were inside cooling off during last month’s heat wave?

There is no need to worry. According to Lodi Electric Utility Director Liz Kirkley, customers can see a possible reduction in their bill this month due to energy cost adjustments (ECA).

The warm weather and energy load increases have a downward impact on the utility’s energy cost adjustment because the costs are spread out among more kilowatt hours, Kirkley said. In addition, there were some adjustment to the utility’s transmission charges that also contributed to a lower energy cost adjustment.

The ECA tends to be higher in the winter months, when people are using less electricity, Kirkley said.

For the month of July, the ECA is 0.0105 per kilowatt hour. The amount of savings customers can expect to see on their bill will depend on how much energy they use. For average usage, which is about 550 kilowatt hours, residents can expect to save up to $6 on their bills this month, according to Kirkley.

The cost adjustments for generation and transmission along with customer usage will determine if customers see a savings in August, too.

“Typically, as the weather warms up and more people are running their air conditioners, our load goes up,” Kirkley said. “That causes the ECA to go down. Doesn’t mean it’s always going to be negative but it does cause it to be lower because it’s more kilowatt hours to spread the cost.”

The ECA changes from month to month, and is applied to customers’ electric bills as part of the city's per-kilowatthour rate for electricity. It allows the utility to recapture the actual cost of producing electricity by adjusting for any increases or decreases in wholesale energy on the market.