For reasons including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Panora City Council approved not doing their usual electricity rate increase for the summer, and lowering the demand rate for higher use customers.

Public Works Director Doug Long proposed at the Council’s May 11th meeting that the City refrains from raising the energy charge a half cent per KWH that they typically do for April through September to afford air conditioning usage. Long cited the desire to keep residents’ bills lower, while mentioning that his department has enough funds reserved to afford a revenue decrease as they accomplished less projects in the past year due to being understaffed. Long also proposed that they lower the demand charge one cent for commercial demand customers with a supply size over 300 KVA to cost about $0.05 per KWH. While Council members expressed concern over fluctuating energy costs to customers such as the Panorama School District which they resolved a billing issue with over a year ago, Long assured that they wouldn’t need to increase this charge next year.

At their May 25th meeting, the Council approved a resolution amending the cost adjustment fee for residents, and they approved the first reading amending the City Code for commercial demand customers, and waived the second and third readings.