Today’s column continues with questions and answers:
Q: Why are my Shawano Municipal Utility electric bills so high?
A: Brian Knapp, SMU general manager/city administrator: “The bill you receive from Shawano Municipal Utilities includes charges for electric, water and sewer services. Our average residential customer’s monthly bill for all three services is approximately $169. Of that amount, $113 is for electric service and $56 is for water and sewer usage. When you compare electric charges with those of friends and relatives served by other utilities, it is important that you compare only the electric charges, and not the total SMU bill, which includes water and sewer charges which are not provided or billed by investor-owned utilities like WE Energies, WPS and Alliant Energy.
“If you compare only the electric charges of SMU to WE Energy or Alliant or WPS, you will find that residential SMU bills are actually 25 percent to 30 percent less than those other providers. Our average residential customer saves $25 to $35 each month compared to what they would be paying if served by our neighboring investor owned utilities. Our commercial and industrial customers also benefit from lower electric rates, with those savings ranging from 8 percent to 25 percent depending upon the size of the customer’s electric load.”
Q: What is Badger Power Marketing Authority (Badger Power) and what is Great Lakes Utilities (GLU) and why is Shawano a member of both?
A: Brian Knapp, SMU general manager/city administrator: “Badger Power was formed by the cities of Shawano and Clintonville in 1984 as a way to join together and purchase wholesale electric power in larger contract blocks to save money for the electric customers of Shawano Municipal Utilities and Clintonville Water and Electric.
“Such arrangements are called Municipal Electric Companies in state statutes and are referred to as “joint action agencies” in the industry. Most municipal utilities around the country are now members of such joint action agencies, but in 1984 they were a fairly new idea and Badger Power was just the second one to be created in the state of Wisconsin.
“For many years Badger Power operated independently for the benefit of SMU and CWE, and directly negotiated and purchased all electric power used by the two members. However, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, changes in the wholesale power transmission, rate design and contracting practices were beginning to significantly complicate the process of securing access to reasonably priced wholesale electric power. In 2000, both Shawano and Clintonville joined with the cities of Manitowoc, Marshfield and Wisconsin Rapids, among others, in a newly formed joint action agency called Great Lakes Utilities or GLU.
“GLU now does for Badger Power and the other members what Badger Power had been doing for SMU and CWE, that is managing the long- and short-term wholesale supply contracts to assure we all have access to reliable, low-cost electric power for our customers. Badger Power remains a valuable tool for both SMU and CWE with unique flexibility to reduce power costs for our customers and leverage the expertise and economies of scale that the two cities have built together, and which we do not have as separate municipal utilities.
“First, Badger Power wholesale power rates are not regulated by the Public Service Commission. The Badger Power board of directors sets the rates it charges SMU and CWE on a “cash flow” basis to cover the operational and capital needs, but their goal is not to make a profit or a certain “rate of return” as is required by the PSC for SMU and CWE retail rates. Badger Power is also the owner of a share of American Transmission Company and receives annual cash dividends on that investment. The Badger Power Board, which consists of experienced business people representing community stakeholders from both Shawano and Clintonville, is able to use that cash to reduce wholesale rates.
“Secondly, Badger Power continues to own and maintain the large delivery point substations — Shawano East, Shawano West, Clintonville and Cloverleaf — that form our connections to “the grid.” The value of those large substations is on the books of Badger Power rather than SMU or CWE, and Badger Power does not have to earn a rate of return on them. SMU and CWE share in the operation and maintenance as well as construction costs, and we are able to support each other, use the expertise and personnel of both utilities more efficiently, and restore power after equipment failures more quickly than if we owned and operated those facilities independently.”
The answer to last week’s question — Who was the owner of Shawano Abstract in 1976? — is S.E. Suchorski.
This week’s question is: Can you name the five furniture stores located in the city during 1972?
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