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The Sacramento Municipal Utility District could change its rate structure in 2016 and/or 2017, depending on the results of a staff recommendation in the works. The potential restructuring was publicly revealed during the muni’s last business meeting of 2014. “As part of the 2015 rate action, SMUD will declare its intent to move to time-of-use rates as the default rate in 2018,” board member Bill Slaton said during the Dec. 18 meeting. The rate action is a mechanism used when staff determines the muni needs to change either the rates themselves or the structure of the rates. Staff then presents its recommendations to the board to decide whether the rate changes or adjustments need to be made. The recommendation on rates and services is expected to be released in April. The scope of the report will include revenue requirements for 2016 and 2017, Slaton said, which staff expects to increase 3 percent annually, driven by higher costs for renewable contracts and an escalation in costs for materials, operations and maintenance. According to SMUD, the new time-of-use rate initially would be available in 2016 to about 300 existing customers, as well as about 6,800 customers who have solar power and about 500 electric vehicle rate customers. In 2017, they would become available to all residential customers. SMUD says the staged approach would allow time for staff to educate customers about time-of-use rates and to make any internal system upgrades needed to transition to rates, which better reflect the real costs of power. The muni’s commercial customers already have transitioned to time-of-use rates. The upcoming action also could include a rate increase recommendation. SMUD most recently agreed to raise its rates in 2013, when it approved a 2.5 percent rate increase that went into effect Jan. 1. No increase is projected for 2016. But, staff could propose a 4.5 percent increase to the board later in 2015, according to chief financial officer Jim Tracy. “Any (upcoming rate) increase would be applied equally across all rate classes,” Slaton said. Also during the meeting, the board unanimously approved joint development of a new 44-mile 500 kV transmission facility with the Western Area Power Administration on the administration’s present 230 kV facilities. The vote authorized $8.32 million in funding for Phase 1 preconstruction activities. Funding of Phase 1, however, does not obligate SMUD to proceed with Phase 2 construction, Board member Rob Kerth said. Additionally during the meeting, SMUD officials said they had recently met with the offices of U.S. Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) to discuss legislative matters. Board members and others from the utility discussed municipal bonds, cybersecurity and protecting the power grid from attack. “An issue that we were working on primarily was just getting information about (grid) attacks that have occurred in other places and what’s been done to prevent them,” Kerth said. “It’s very hard to fend off what you don’t know about and for security reasons can’t be told about. So we’re seeking a change in legislation on that so we can be actually informed of what’s going on.” “We expect there will be progress on this issue in the coming year,” Kerth added. The December business meeting was the last for retiring board members Larry Carr and Howard Posner. Carr, who was elected to the Sacramento City Council in November, is being replaced on the SMUD board by Dave Tamayo, who ran unopposed for Carr’s Ward 6 seat. Posner is being replaced as Ward 3 representative by Gregg Fishman. He won 53 percent of the vote in last November’s general election. Fishman, who was a senior public information officer for the California Independent System Operator from 2001-2010, currently works as a communications coordinator with the California State Association of Counties, which represents county government before the state Legislature, administrative agencies and the federal government. —Mark Edward Nero

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