Clayton electric customers will enjoy lower rates starting on December 1st. At their monthly meeting Tuesday night, the Clayton Town Council approved a 4.5 percent rate reduction for residential and business customers.
A rate study presented to the Council on October 5th by Andrew Givens with Cardinal Energy Service Inc. of Raleigh indicated if rates were decreased more than 4.5 percent, rates would need to increase within just 12 to 18 more months.
With the current rate reduction, Clayton should be able to absorb an average increase in wholesale power costs from Duke Energy of approximately 3 percent each year for the next three to four years.
Council members put off adopting the rate decrease on Oct. 19th to allow more time to study all the options.
A current Town of Clayton electric customer who uses about 1200 kwh per month is now paying $160.91 plus a base charge of $6.95. Once the rate is dropped December 1st, their bill would be lowered by $9.75 per month, or $177 on average a year. A 2000 kwh per month customer will see a rate reduction around $13.00 a month or about $156 a year.
The 4.5 percent rate decrease does not apply to lighting rates and municipal rates.
