4.1. ERMUSR 10-13-15 - Laserfiche WebLink

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September 22, 2015 To: Elk River Municipal Utilities From: Dave Berg Consulting Subject: Retail Demand Rate Credit Background Elk River Municipal Utilities (ERMU) is undertaking a series of service territory acquisitions from the surrounding rural electric cooperative. ERMU charges a retail demand and energy rate to all retail customers larger than 50 kW. The cooperative charges retail demand and energy rates to all customers greater than 25 kW. Both ERMU and the cooperative bill demand on a seasonal basis with higher demand rates in the summer. The effective ERMU demand rate based on total demand revenue and retail demand billing units is $13.50/kW. The cooperative's effective total demand rate is estimated to be $9.00/kW. ERMU is interested in addressing this demand rate differential as these customers transition to becoming ERMU customers. Any rate adjustments made for these new customers would also apply to ERMU's existing demand and large demand customers. ERMU's retail demand charge is approximately $4.50/kW higher than the cooperative's. However, including power cost adjustments, ERMU's energy rate for demand customers is$0.006/kWh lower than the cooperative's. This lower energy rate partially compensates for the higher demand rate. An average ERMU demand customer has a 60% monthly load factor. A 60% load factor customer uses 438 kWh per month for each 1 kW of demand. The lower ERMU energy rate would save an average demand customer $2.63 (438 kWh x 0.006) per kW of demand. This reduces the average demand difference between ERMU and the cooperative to$1.87/kW ($4.50 less$2.63). There are two other drivers that need to be considered when determining the rate impacts on the demand billed customers that are being acquired. The first is that ERMU does not charge for power factor correction. The cooperative charges the applicable monthly demand rate on billed kW and not measured kW. The billed kW is used when the customer's average power factor is less than 90 percent. For customers with a power factor less than 90 percent, their bill under the cooperative's rate will be adjusted higher but this adjustment does not occur under the ERMU rate. The second driver is some smaller customers will experience a change from the Demand Electric Service customer class to the Non-Demand Electric Service customer class. Customers that have demand between 25 kW and 49 kW will, in general, see energy cost benefits as a result of not having to pay demand or power factor correction charges. ERMU is considering temporarily lowering the demand portion of the demand and large demand retail rates. For example, a $2.00 reduction in the retail demand rate for 2016 would make the effective retail rates for ERMU and the cooperative more comparable for most demand billed customers. Based on current ERMU demand customers, this demand reduction would result in a reduction in annual revenue of approximately $761,500, or 2.4% of ERMU's total annual revenues. ERMU plans to cover this deficit 57