Following the approval last week of the rate filing from the Public Service Commission, Jamestown Board of Public Utilities’ electric customers will be seeing an overall 8.08% increase starting in January.

Deputy General Manager, Kris Sellstrom, said the BPU has received the 318 page order from the Public Service Commission and are currently in the process of going through that. The increase is set to go into effect Jan. 1, but customers will not see it until their February bills.

“Also as a reminder, prior to the rate filing the last two adjustments were for 2.33% in August of 2010 and 1.69% in March of 2016,” Sellstrom said. “I think that really highlights Dave (Leathers, outgoing general manager)’s leadership over that period of time and it’s really impressive results honestly.”

Sellstrom said other parts of the rate filing will continue to be worked through over the next few months as the order received was so big. He added the commission had originally approved a larger increase but with staff recommendation and approval it was kept at the lower rate to minimize the impact to customers. Another factor that helped keep the rate increase down was the off-system sales contribution change which was increased to $2 million, as those off-system sales can be used to help offset expenses.

“I think overall as a priority we work to maintain affordable rates for our customers and we understand that this rate change has an impact, but we’re working hard to balance the financial strength and stability of the electric division,” Sellstrom said.

Sellstrom thanked everyone who worked on the rate filing for their work, noting that it only took six months to complete, which is short for work of this nature. In the dollar amount it was noted that the rate increase is expected to add about another $5 to $7 to customer bills, depending on usage.