The city Board of Public Utilities is looking for a 9.96% rate increase to take effect no later than Dec. 31, pending approval from the state Public Service Commission.

BPU officials say the increase will be about $5 or $6 a month for most residential customers. So, we’re not talking about something as large as the National Grid rate increase that raised the ire of customers and the state’s elected officials recently. That increase starts at a $22 a month increase for customers this year and will end up at about $50 more a month once the rate increase is phased in over three years.

Give some credit to BPU officials for recognizing the fact that many BPU customers struggle to pay their bills now. The utility has held off on a rate increase longer than was financially prudent for the utility’s bottom line, and the BPU board didn’t even attempt a rate increase the size of National Grid’s. This could have been much worse for BPU ratepayers.

Minimizing the rate increase on residential users is important, but we do wonder about industrial customers. Depending on the business this is not a great time to see an increase in electricity rates. We’d say those customers are lucky not to be getting power from National Grid.

The real question when it comes to the BPU isn’t necessarily the pending rate increase nor the increase in District Heating rates that is coming for this winter. It’s the future of the entire District Heating system. BPU officials haven’t said much recently about the status of the Retool District Heat project. There are a lot of moving parts in that project – including the willingness of industrial customers who are seeing increases in electric and district heat rates to pony up for massive investments to help pay for the District Heating system upgrade that is both necessary and expensive.

Repairs to the existing system have been made to make sure the system operates. But we know that such bandaids won’t be available forever. It’s worth keeping the District Heating system’s future in the back of our collective minds.