MEA to manage Seward’s electric utility

The Seward City Council approved a contract with Matanuska Electric Association on Monday night to manage the city’s electric utility after residentsThe contract provides for a part-time utility manager and a full-time operations supervisor hired by MEA. The employees will oversee the day-to-day operations and provide guidance on effectively running the utility that serves nearly 3,000 people.

Brian Hickey will be the new utility manager for the city. He said the city is not alone in trying to fill those positions. “What we saw this month with our first billing cycle with the new rates was kind of a perfect storm of a rate increase which is already hard to handle coupled with a high kilowatt usage hour due to the cold,” she said.

However, city council members and city staff clarified the contract’s details in order to address people’s concerns. The city will pay for the cost of service from MEA with an additional 3% administrative fee. As a nonprofit cooperative, MEA’s service costs are regulated by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska .

“It’s our goal to get our utility up to where it needs to be, and that includes being able to hire a long term utility manager to fill this role,” she said, “so while Brian and the MEA crew are working with us to get to that point from the utility, we’ll also be working on the back end to do the things that we need to do to figure out how we can get there with the salary.”

Energy Energy Latest News, Energy Energy Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Edmunds: Which three-row EV is best? Edmunds compares the Kia EV9 and Rivian R1SThe electric three-row SUV segment is small but quickly growing. The all-new Kia EV9 is one of the latest electric family haulers to hit the market and is one of our top electric performers. It’s more affordable than similarly sized rivals and is one of the few non-luxury three-row electric SUVs available this year.
Source: AP - 🏆 728. / 51 Read more »

Cadillac teases ‘Opulent Velocity’ electric V-Series conceptCadillac teased its upcoming electric V-Series performance vehicle, signaling that the automaker aims to compete in the performance EV space.
Source: verge - 🏆 94. / 67 Read more »

Batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land verticallyResearchers are taking cleaner transportation to the skies by creating and evaluating new batteries for airborne electric vehicles that take off and land vertically. Researchers are developing new energy-dense materials, learning how these materials degrade under extreme conditions, and developing battery control systems.
Source: ScienceDaily - 🏆 452. / 53 Read more »