Seattle City Councilmember Bruce Harrell

On April 21, 2010, it was announced that the City of Seattle will receive $20 million from the US Department of Energy as part of their “Retrofit Ramp Up” program. This is a competitive grant program funded through the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant (EECBG). More than 150 cities applied for the funding and Seattle was one of only 25 cities to receive the award.

The funds will support the development of the Seattle Neighborhood WEB (Weatherize Every Building) Initiative. This is an energy efficiency retrofit effort that targets the downtown core to the Rainier Valley. The WEB Initiative will provide financing for property owners to invest in energy efficiency upgrades and create energy savings between 15-45 percent per upgraded building and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 71,000 metric tons. In addition, nearly 2,000 jobs in the green sector will be created.

My colleagues and I submitted a letter of support for the Seattle Office of Sustainability and Environment’s application and are pleased that the initiative is progressing.

Press Release issued today – April 12, 2010

Panel will help guide strategic planning, financial policies and rate-budget reviews

SEATTLE – Today the Seattle City Council confirmed the appointments of the new City Light Review Panel. This panel comprised of member appointees by the Mayor and the City Council, will oversee City Light’s strategic plan process, financial policies and rate reviews. This concept is a departure from the previous City Light Citizen committees because it combines the former City Light Advisory Committee and the ad-hoc Rate Advisory Committee. Combining the two groups streamlines their activity while concurrently immersing the group in City Light issues. By actively working on City Light’s strategic plan and reviewing financial policies, the group will be in a more informed position to dive into rate reviews when they occur.

Continue Reading »

Reserve fund established to protect rates

City Light sells its surplus power to receive wholesale revenue and uses this wholesale revenue to keep your rates low. Last year City Light encountered a $70 million wholesale revenue shortfall caused by low natural gas prices. This year the Utility is facing a similar shortfall caused by the 8th lowest snow pack in the last 50 years. My goal is to protect you, as ratepayers, from the volatility of wholesale revenue fluctuations, and still keep your rates as one of the lowest in the nation. We have been successful. The Full Council took the recommendation of the Energy, Technology and Civil Rights Committee and voted unanimously to create a $100 million Rate Stabilization Account (RSA) for City Light. This followed six weeks of discussion, analysis and testimony. Following is a chronology of RSA discussions and the press release that announces and describes the RSA:

Continue Reading »

Seattle City Council Pressed City Light to Fix Neighborhood Streetlight Outage Backlogs

Seattle City Light’s redesigned programs have already improved streetlight service levels for all Seattle utility customers. This has been priority for my Committee and the Council. In December 2009, we redesigned the Streetlight Maintenance Outage Repair Program and discontinued spot re-lamping as the primary method for handling routine outages. In place of a spot re-lamping program, a planned city-wide routine maintenance program was implemented and is now more than 50 percent complete. This reduces the labor costs the Utility has to pay.

Seattle City Light currently powers and maintains nearly 84,000 Seattle streetlights within its service area of 131.3 square miles. After my Energy and Technology Committee focused its work on streetlighting in 2008, City Light installed 42,000 new lamps, covering our service territory south of Denny Way. Additionally, City Light will begin its next phase and will stretch from Denny Way north to 65th Street.

Continue Reading »

We can’t read the news without reading about our federal budget deficit, state deficit, County’s deficit, and, of course, Seattle’s.

It is my responsibility to demonstrate clear leadership to a Utility that has a budget roughly the size of the entire City – Seattle City Light. Based on the snowcap and the amount of water runoff, we are able to predict the amount of net wholesale revenue. Based on these predictions, we anticipate a revenue shortfall between $40 to $50 million. Rather than allow this deficit to strain our existing resources next year, I have requested that the Utility develop a work plan and a spending pattern that requires it to conduct its operations and budget in alignment with the anticipated revenue. Simply put, do not spend money that you do not have. I need a plan by the end of March.

As you can see by the attached letter, I do not mince words. Without sacrificing our commitment to have a safe and reliable infrastructure and without eliminating our commitment to our environment and efforts in conservation, we simply will have to figure out how to do more with less. (See earlier blog regarding our efforts to reduce overtime at the Utility.)

My goal is to rely on the hard work and the ingenuity of the Utility’s employees to follow the budget constraints that we must operate under. I need this leadership from the Utility. We have to protect our citizens and our ratepayers.

.PDF copy of the letter

Back in February of 2009, I posted a piece about Seattle City Light’s ongoing negotiations with Pend Oreille County over the amount the Utility should pay Pend Oreille County for the impact of City Light’s Boundary Dam there. Boundary Dam accounts for approximately 50 percent of the electricity used by City Light Customers. After more than a year of negotiation, an agreement has still not been reached. Legislation was introduced in Olympia that we believed would not have been favorable to City Light or its customers. It called for City Light to pay Pend Oreille County 7 percent of the Utility tax that City Light pays annually to the City of Seattle, which would have amounted to $2.3 million. This is significantly higher than the $1.4 million City Light has paid annually for the last 10 years to Pend Oreille County.

Continue Reading »