The Lincoln City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve a 4% rate increase for Lincoln Electric System customers, a move city leaders say is necessary to meet new reliability requirements from the regional transmission authority.
The rate adjustment, which passed 7-0, will take effect July 1 and is expected to raise an average residential customer’s bill by about $4.03 per month, based on 1,000 kilowatt-hours of usage.
LES officials said the change is driven by new rules from the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), which manages the electric grid across 14 central states. The updated regulations require LES to generate more power to bolster grid reliability—an effort prompted by past extreme weather events, including 2021’s Winter Storm Uri and Winter Storm Elliott in 2022.
Some residents expressed concern at Monday’s meeting about the financial impact on working families. City Councilmembers James Michael Bowers and Tom Duden said they he initially opposed the proposal but ultimately changed their minds.
“I was concerned about the impact that this would have on working families,” said Bowers. “But it’s important to remember that this is a regulation that’s being put on us by a higher authority… and if we’re not in compliance, there’s going to be a penalty.”
“I think it’s a smart move on LES’s part to be current with new technologies and enhancements to our electric system to avoid penalties if we didn’t,” Duden followed.
LES said the increase will help the utility maintain stable service and prevent the kinds of outages seen during recent national grid failures.