At a time when inflation seems to be driving up the cost of everything, the City of Powell and its residents are getting a reprieve on their electric bills.

The city’s wholesale power supplier, the Wyoming Municipal Power Agency (WMPA), recently determined that it will be holding rates steady for another year.

Zane Logan, who represents the city on WMPA’s board, was happy to report the news at Monday night’s Powell City Council meeting.

“Actually it [the rate] is slightly down from 2017,” Logan said.

City Administrator Zack Thorington said the steady pricing was good to hear, noting Rocky Mountain Power’s recent announcement that it intends to raise its electric service rates by an average of 21.6%.

WMPA is a cooperative of eight municipalities who’ve joined together to seek affordable electricity. The bulk of its power — some 88% in fiscal year 2022 — comes from the Basin Electric Power Cooperative, with the remainder drawn from hydropower transmitted by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Western Area Power Administration. 

The agency is operating on a $19.1 million budget this year, with the vast majority of those expenses — $17 million — used to purchase electricity. WMPA expects to receive nearly $18.9 million in revenue from its members, which include Powell, Cody, Fort Laramie, Guernsey, Lingle, Lusk, Pine Bluffs and Wheatland.

The agency has held its rates steady at $20.37 per kilowatt month and 3.557 cents per kilowatt hour for the past several years.

The wholesale prices charged by WMPA make up only about half of the City of Powell’s overall electric costs, as the city must distribute power to the city’s residents and businesses once it arrives in Powell. However, Thorington said the city has no plans to raise its electric rates at this time.

The city finished rebuilding its Vining Substation for roughly $2.9 million last year and is now in the process of adding a fourth circuit to its system; the circuit will serve Northwest College and that general area of town, Thorington said.

At Monday’s meeting, the council approved a $75,770 bid from J&J Construction to perform boring work on West Seventh Street to prepare for the new circuit. The Cody company’s bid came in below the $80,000 that the city budgeted for the work and well below a $192,932.60 bid submitted by WyoDak Energy Services of Buffalo.

Councilman Steve Lensegrav called the discrepancy between the two bids “pretty amazing.” Thorington said he inquired about the difference and was told it basically amounted to “the overhead.” J&J Construction only has two workers, he said, “and this is all they do, is bore.”

The city’s contract calls for the boring to be completed by no later than June 30.