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The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has constructed a plan that will adjust electricity rates in the San Fernando Valley for the summer, while increasing the rates for Los Angeles as a whole. The restructured rates will go into effect Jan. 1, 2008. According to a news release, the average residential customer who uses 500 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per month will see an increase in their monthly bill of $1.75. An additional $1.75 will be added starting July 1, 2008 and again July 1, 2009. The rate-restructuring plan, proposed by L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, was approved last month by the DWP commission. Overall, power rates are set to increase 9 percent over the next three years. While the raw rates are not being lowered in the Valley, the manner in which Valley users are billed is being modified. Carol Tucker, spokeswoman of the LADWP, cleared up confusion about the rates. “It’s not that the Valley is getting a discount, because everybody is getting the same increase,” Tucker explained. “Under the restructuring proposal, the Valley would get a little bit of a break in the increase because of overall hotter temperatures.” Paul Nieman, director of plant facilities at Pierce College, has not heard of the plan or the rate increases proposed. “We’re not on a residential account, so it probably wouldn’t affect us,” Nieman stated. A refrigerator running in an 85-degree climate will use more energy than a refrigerator running in a 70-degree climate, so the rate is geared to help Valley residents with power they are already using, not to give these residents room for excessive usage. The DWP bills power usage in tiers, with each respective tier costing a different rate. The plan will make it more difficult for Valley residents to reach the next billing tier based on standard usage. For example, Tier 1 in the metro zone (south of Mulholland Drive) is reached when a resident uses 350 kWh, after which a higher rate is charged. The new plan will allow residents in the Valley zone (north of Mulholland Drive) to stay in Tier 1 until 500 kWh are used and then in Tier 2 until 1,000 kWh are used. Some in the metro zone have expressed some discontent about the breaks. “There’s some contention on the metro side that they will be subsidizing the Valley side,” Tucker said, referring to the fear that extra costs incurred by the Valley will be assumed by the metro zone. According to the Los Angeles Times, L.A. City Council President Eric Garcetti, who serves on the council’s Energy and Environment Committee, said he wanted to make sure the plan didn’t leave “working-class folks in one part of the city subsidizing wealthier folks in another.” Councilwoman Jan Perry, who represents part of South Los Angeles, was not ready to back the new zone because she believed that Valley residents know when they buy a home that they will be paying more for power.
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