BWL Board of Commissioners Approves Rate Increase
The Lansing Board of Water & Light (BWL) Board of Commissioners approved a two-year rate strategy at a Special Board Meeting this evening, Tuesday, August 27. The rate increases will go into effect on October 1, 2024 and October 1, 2025, and outline a two-year strategy to allow customers to plan for future increases.
“I want to thank the Board of Commissioners for approving this important initiative. We take this process very seriously and understand increases can be difficult, which is why we carefully evaluate all costs and have kept increases under the rate of inflation,” said BWL Chief Financial Officer Heather Shawa. “These increases are necessary to ensure we’re able to provide safe and reliable services, maintain and replace our aging infrastructure, and continue to support BWL’s clean energy goals.”
Rate increases for each utility will be as follows:
- Average Electric Rate Increase: 6.95% for 2024 and 6.00% for 2025
- Residential: 7.8% increase for 2024 and 6.8% in 2025
- This will result in a monthly financial impact for an average 500 kWh usage customer of $7.02 as of Oct. 2024 and $6.56 as of Oct. 2025
- Average Water Rate Increase: 9.23% for 2024 and 9.16% for 2025
- Residential: 9.5% in 2024 and 9.2% in 2025
- This will result in a monthly financial impact for a 2 CCF usage customer of $1.35 as of Oct. 2024 and $1.31 as of Oct. 2025
- This will result in a monthly financial impact for a 5 CCF usage customer of $3.93 as of Oct. 2024 and $4.22 as of Oct. 2025
- Steam rate increase: 9.75% for 2024 and 2025 (mostly commercial customers)
- Chilled Water rate increase: 2% for 2024 and 1.50% for 2025 (all commercial customers)
The rate increases for 2024 would result in an increase of $20.3 million for electric, $5.0 million for water, $1.0 million for steam and $90,000 for chilled water.
For customers who are struggling to pay their bills, the next BWL Community Resource Fair will be on Wednesday, October 2 from 2-6pm at the Alfreda Schmidt Community Center, 5825 Wise Rd., Lansing. Click here for more information.
The BWL has approximately 100,000 electric customers, 58,000 water customers, 156 steam customers and 19 chilled water customers. For more information about the BWL’s energy portfolio, visit www.lbwl.com.