PORT ANGELES — Port Angeles City Council members will meet this week to discuss near-term goals for the city’s electric utility and what it will take to achieve them.
Council members will join members of the city’s Utility Advisory Committee, an advisory body to the City Council, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday in City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
City Public Works Director Glenn Cutler said council members will not take official votes but will provide responses to city staff on how to move forward with electric utility planning.
“It would not be adopting ordinances or things of that nature; it will be more direction on how do you want [city staff] to move on this particular topic,” Cutler said.
The purpose of the meeting will be to consider what issues the city’s electric utility will face over the next two years, Cutler said, with focus given to ensuring the electric rates paid to Bonneville Power Administration — BPA, the city’s electricity provider — stay reasonable.
Cutler said the city is meeting power-use objectives through energy conservation programs that will keep the city from moving into the second tier of more-expensive BPA electricity.
The city estimates a shift to this second tier will not happen until at least 2019.
At the meeting, city elected officials and staff will hear presentations from a representative from Northwest Public Power Association, a nonprofit trade organization comprising nearly 160 public and municipal utilities; two private consulting firms; and a BPA representative.
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