By Zach Jensen,
Alliant Energy recently celebrated the grand opening of the company’s new operations center on Park Street in Decorah. (Photo by Zach Jensen)
Alliant Energy, which provides electricity services to Decorah, raised its rates for Iowa customers in October. But, while some predict the increase may strain residents and local entities, the increased percentages could have been significantly higher.
After negotiations with the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate, Alliant Energy settled with raising its residential rates by 6 percent — down from the 13.4 percent which was originally proposed — and its general rates, which include downtown businesses, churches, other non-profits, schools and municipal government buildings, will see a 15 percent increase — down from the proposed hike of 20 percent, according to Alliant Energy Senior Communications Partner Morgan Hawk. In the negotiations, the Iowa Utilities Commission accepted the Clean Energy Districts of Iowa’s recommendation that it reject certain rate design changes for what are termed large general service-supplementary customers, said Jim Martin-Schramm, Policy Analyst for CEDI, a nonprofit organization which provides support to Iowa energy districts.
“I’m not crazy about a 15 percent cost increase,” said Decorah Mayor Lorraine Borowski, “but it was supposed to be a lot worse. I’m grateful that the CEDI Coalition went to bat for the over 3,000 residential households in Decorah as well as all of our businesses and non-profits.”
The overall impact on bills will vary, depending on actual energy used, Hawk said. The rate adjustment for electric customers adds about $8 per month to the typical resident’s bill, according to Hawk, while about $49 per month will be added to the typical general service customer’s bill.
“Yes, a 15 percent increase is going to be challenging — especially for the General Fund related departments … where recent changes in property tax law already reduced what the city could collect with property tax revenues to cover these costs, with the average being 3.26 percent over the last 10 years,” said Decorah City Manager Travis Goedken. “Most of our operations fall into the rate paying class that is limited to a 15 percent increase in revenue as a whole, but individual accounts are not capped at that 15 percent. Going into preparations of the FY26 budget, we’ll be using a 15 percent increase in our planning.”
Luther College, one of Decorah’s largest electricity consumers, also falls into the general service category.
“I am so glad that the CEDI Coalition helped to persuade the Iowa Utilities Commission not to approve Alliant’s proposed rate design scheme,” said Luther College President, Jenifer K. Ward as part of a statement released by Clean Energy Districts of Iowa. “If our costs only increase by the 15 percent class cost cap, the CEDI Coalition will have helped us save hundreds of thousands of dollars every year for at least the next five years. That’s a lot more money we can use to offer financial aid to our students and to pay our valuable employees.”
However, one issue not resolved through the state’s settlement agreement with Alliant involved a proposal from the energy company that would have increased Luther’s $1 million annual electric bill by about $400,000. Martin-Schramm said it takes time to plug all of the numbers into a spreadsheet to estimate the total bill impact of the rate increase, but he believes it is likely Luther’s cost will increase the 15 percent class cost cap.
In addition to large general service customers, Martin-Schramm said poorly-insulated structures will see higher electricity costs.
Full article available in the November 7 Decorah Leader.
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