Oklahoma’s Grand River Dam Authority expects to lower power rates over several years beginning in 2011 as its debt-service payments drop off.
Kevin Easley, chief executive officer of the state-owned utility, told agency directors that the proposed new rate would probably be scheduled to go into effect July 1.
“We’ll be coming back in early 2011 asking for a 2% reduction,” Easley told the board last week. “We’re looking to get down to pre-2010 rates.”
Easley said the agency’s debt-service payments would drop from a high of $143 million in fiscal 2010 to $63 million in fiscal 2013. The authority must invest its excess revenue in capital improvements or return the surplus to ratepayers.
It expects revenues to total $372.4 million in fiscal 2011, with $122.8 million of debt service.
The energy provider sells electricity to municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and industrial customers in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri.
The authority’s $930 million of outstanding revenue debt is rated A by Fitch Ratings and Standard & Poor’s, and A2 by Moody’s Investors Service.
