By Dakota Antelman — [email protected]
Concord residents should expect to pay a few dollars per month more on next year’s electricity bills after the Municipal Light Board approved new rates.
The board held its annual rate hearing on December 4. In an email after the meeting, Concord Municipal Light Plant assistant director of power supply and energy management Laura Scott said the monthly bill for a customer using the median amount of electricity will jump by $7.15, or 4.9 percent.
Debt and inflation are among the factors behind the rate hike. With uncertainties on the rise, CMLP staff and Light Board members agreed on a plan to increase the portion of revenue they collect beyond the bare minimum costs to run the CMLP system.
“Inflation has been high the last couple of years,” said board member Brian Foulds. “The cost of debt has been increasing the last few years. So, the idea of a higher buffer to these uncertainties makes sense to me.”
CMLP counts its minimum costs as its “rate base.” The rate base does not cover debt service, among other line items.
CMLP uses extra revenue beyond the rate base to pay excess costs. With a rate base near $40 million, Scott said CMLP has historically collected a 2.5 percent “rate of return.”
Scott said the “very low” 2.5 percent return has been sufficient. Now, though, she said it needs to increase.
CMS solar project
Debt costs are expected to double in 2025, from roughly $561,000 this year to $1.12 million.
CMLP director Jason Bulger said the “biggest driver for an increase in debt” is a solar panel and battery project at the new Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School.
Over time, the project will reduce the amount of energy the plant needs to buy from sources outside Concord.
“But the upfront costs for the installation will dramatically outweigh the revenue that we anticipate getting,” Bulger said.
The Light Board opted to increase the rate of return to 3.5 percent in 2025. The Light Board also hiked fixed meter fees from $18.50 to $20.
The change in next year’s monthly bills is larger than last year’s increase of 2 percent or less for residential and small commercial customers but smaller than a 13 percent increase from 2022 to 2023.
Light Board clerk John Dalton was part of the unanimous vote to approve the new rates.
“It’s probably appropriate, given the increase in rates that we’re talking about, to move in a measured fashion,” he said.
Speaking in public comment, resident Pamela Dritt urged board members to continue making rate changes slowly while supporting rate-balancing programs and green energy investments.
“Raise them up now for everyone slowly so that it is not a shock and we can benefit from clean water and healthy children,” she said.
Rate drivers
Concord has historically had some of the highest monthly bills among Massachusetts communities with municipal plants, according to an analysis from the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co.
The bill for a residential customer using 750 kilowatt-hours in 2024 was just under $165. Only Belmont, Chester, and Princeton had higher bills.
Though high in comparison with other municipal plants, In an interview, Scott said Concord’s high rates subsize programs and features that other municipal plants don’t offer, including “very generous” rebates, and a fully non-carbon emitting power supply.
Massachusetts Municipal also shows CMLP’s rates are still much less than those of investor-owned utilities, such as Eversource.
Scott said staff watch rate comparisons “like a hawk.”
But “from our perspective,” she said, “the mandate from the community has not been to give us the lowest priced power at all costs.”
