JEA is exploring rate increases, including an increase for more than 200 commercial and industrial customers who are charged at varying rates depending on the time of their electricity use.
Victor Blackshear, director of rates for JEA, told the city-owned utility’s board March 31 that JEA was studying a potential rate change for its Time-of-Day program, in which customers are charged higher rates for use during peak-generation times and less during nonpeak hours.
According to presentation materials, 230 customers are in the program.
JEA’s website describes the Time-of-Day program as a rate option in which customers are charged nearly twice as much as the standard rate during peak hours and nearly half as much during off-peak hours.
“TOD rates are used by companies that operate 24/7/365 which generally have a high Load Factor or those that have operational schedules that fall predominantly during off-peak hours,” the site says.
Blackshear said the program’s rates have not been adjusted in 25 years.
Under a timeline presented by Juli Crawford, senior vice president of finance, the study will be presented to the board during an April 14 workshop on rates and capacity fees.
The timeline calls for a June 30 board vote on the new rates, which would take effect Oct. 1.
No proposed new rates were discussed, nor were the current rates. The Daily Record has requested more information.
Capacity fees are one-time charges to JEA customers for connecting to the utility’s water, wastewater and reclamation system. JEA, a not-for-profit organization, says it imposes the fees to cover the costs of infrastructure expansion, replacement and refurbishment.
A Jacksonville City Council special committee is investigating the fees after city Inspector General Matthew Lascell sought Council assistance in determining whether JEA had adequately collected them from several of its commercial customers.