BLP to raise rates 1.85%; reports slight improvement in sales

Electric rates will be going up for customers of the Grand Haven Board of Light & Power. The BLP Board of Directors on Thursday adopted its business plan for the next fiscal year, which includes an average increase in its electric rates of 2.4 percent, effective July 1. The increase will add about $1.44 per month, or 1.85 percent, to the average residential customer's electric bill - and contribute $780,000 in revenues to the BLP.

Alex Doty

Grand Haven

May 27, 2011

“With sales coming in higher than fiscal year 2011 projections and proposed budget reductions, we are able to reduce the projected 4-percent rate increase expected at last year’s budget approval to the 2.4-percent average level,” BLP General Manager Annette Allen said.

Allen said several different budget scenarios were considered prior to approving the rate increase — weighing the economic impact to customers with the necessity to maintain utility reliability and appropriately fund important capital expenditures.

“We worked awfully hard to make (the rate increase) as small as possible,” she said.

Fuel prices have increased about 3.5 percent, and the BLP has been able to absorb the cost of fuel as much as possible, Allen said.

To read more of this story, see today’s print edition of the Grand Haven Tribune.