LAKE PLACID – Lake Placid is proposing to increase the cost of village electricity for the first time since 2007.

Village Treasurer Mindy Goddeau doesn’t expect month-to-month charges for residents to significantly increase with the change – the price of power per kilowatt hour for all rate classes is increasing by less than a cent. Goddeau said the increase would mostly affect residential customers with electric heat who exceed 5,000 kwh per month, she said.

All six classes of power customers within the village are slated for a rate increase, including residential customers; small commercial customers, or businesses that stay under 5,000 kwh per month; large commercial customers who exceed 5,000 kwh; the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, which has an “industrial” electric usage class all its own; security lights and street lights.

Residential service charges – the one-time charge customers get each month for having electricity hooked up to their home – are staying the same at $8. Residential prices per kwh are going up from .03389 to .03656 cents per kwh in the summer – from May to October – and for the first 1,500 kwh used in the winter, from November to April. For residential customers who use between 1501 to 5000 kwh in the winter, charges would rise from .05638 to .06083 cents per kwh, and anything over 5000 kwh would go up from .12558 to .13550 cents per kwh.

Demand charges for large commercial customers – which are based on the number kilowatts used each month – are proposed to increase by 47 cents, from $6 to $6.47 per kilowatt, and large commercial kwh charges would also increase by less than a cent. Service charges for small commercial customers would increase from $5 to $5.39 along with meter rates, which would increase by less than a cent.

A few factors motivated the proposed increase, Goddeau said – inflation, village debt and a recommendation from a three-year assessment of the village’s electric revenue, expenses and debt by the New York Power Authority. The NYPA purchases power for the village, and while Goddeau said NYPA encourages municipalities to up their electric rates every seven years to keep up with inflating energy costs, the village hasn’t increased rates in 16 years.

As a result of NYPA’s study, a formerly incorrect formula for the village’s PPAC – purchased power adjustment charge – was lowered. But between 2.4 million in debt from substation upgrades by the Lake Placid Volunteer Fire Department and around $990,000 in debt from substation upgrades at Lake Placid’s electric plant, Goddeau said, the village needed to increase rates to pay for debts and lost revenue in the electric department.

“It was to cover what we’re going to lose; the extra debt that we took on to help us pay for it, and to make sure that we had enough money going forward that, if something that wasn’t a million dollars … broke, or needed to be fixed, that we had the funds in order to do that,” Goddeau said.

She said that if this proposed increase is approved, the village shouldn’t have to consider another rate increase for several years.

The Village Board of Trustees is holding a public hearing on the proposed increase at 4:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 21 in the first-floor meeting room of the North Elba Town Hall.

Goddeau said anyone in the village who has questions about the proposed increase or wants to learn how the change could specifically impact their monthly bill can email her at treasurer@villageoflakeplacid.ny.gov.

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CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article included several errors, including an incorrect name for the New York Power Authority; an incorrect definition for the village’s power purchase adjustment charge; the conflation of “service charges” and “demand charges” with “flat rates”; and an incorrect service charge change — called a “flat rate” change in the original article — for small commercial electric customers proposed with the electric rate increase. In the original article, “flat rates” in reference to residential and small commercial customers are actually “service charges.” Service charges for small commercial customers are increasing from $5 to $5.39, not decreasing as the original article states. “Flat rates” in reference to large commercial businesses are actually “demand rates.” The Enterprise regrets the errors.