Clinton Village Council adopts electric rate increase in 6-1 vote

A handful of utility vehicles within the village of Clinton’s electric department are pictured in this file photo from May 9, 2025.

By BRAD HEINEMAN

Clinton Local

Only a few comments were received last week when the Clinton Village Council held a public hearing Monday, March 2 to consider feedback regarding an increase to the village’s electric rates.

After the public comments were fielded, further discussion between the village council and Village Administrator Kevin Cornish took place. Following those talks, village council voted to accept the proposed electric rate increase that would see an average residential customer’s energy bill — using 570 kWh (kilowatt-hour) — increase by $4.82, or 5% per month in 2026.

Kilowatt-hour (kWh) is the standard unit of energy consumption representing the amount of electricity used by a 1,000-watt appliance running for one hour.

The rate increase was adopted by the village council after a 6-1 vote, with council member Larry Sines casting the lone “No” vote, as he cited some reservations he had about the increase. Per the village’s resolution to amend its electrical rates and charges, the new rates will go into effect on or after March 20, depending on the billing cycle.

The village of Clinton owns and operates an electric utility. Unlike most of Lenawee County, which gets its electrical service from either Consumers Energy or Midwest Energy & Communications, Clinton is a member of the Michigan South Central Power Agency (MSCPA) of which Coldwater, Hillsdale and Marshall are also members. MSCPA supplies complete electrical power requirements to its members from various member-owned resources, purchased power agreements, American Municipal Power (AMP), energy market purchases and from member communities’ generators.

The village is served at 40,000 volts by two Detroit Edison (DTE) interconnection circuits, which are fed into two village substations and transformers.

Electric rates and charges need to be amended periodically, the village’s resolution said, to maintain the financial stability of the system.

That is the case for this new hike in electric rates.

“The village needs to have adequate revenue to pay for the significantly higher costs for transmission, generation, the state’s renewable energy requirements, capacity, staff and capital to maintain the system,” the village said in a public notice regarding the electric revenue increase public hearing. “The state’s 2023 renewable energy law, requiring 50% renewable energy resources by 2030 and 100% renewable energy resources by 2040, will significantly increase the cost of power as electric utilities systemically add costly renewable resources.”

In January, the village said it will charge residents a monthly service charge and/or a kWh charge to cover the cost of Michigan’s Energy Waste Reduction (EWR) requirements. At the time, though, the exact figures or charges were not made official. An additional monthly service charge is being applied to customers as set by the state of Michigan’s Low Income Energy Assistance Fund (LIEAF) program. The rate will be systematically increased by the state in the next few years.

“The bottom line is we just have to look at getting enough (renewable resources) — typically wind and/or solar resources — to cover more of our costs,” Cornish said during the public hearing, while noting that such resources are becoming more expensive.

There’s a couple of different ways for Clinton to tap into renewable energy resources; those are achieved by the village owning the resource itself or through something like a purchase-power agreement, which, for example, Clinton has with Oconto Falls, Wisconsin, and Menominee in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. That specific purchase-power agreement is for two hydro units (one in Menominee and one in Oconto Falls). The units have an installed capacity of 8.56 MW.

As a public power provider, the village of Clinton’s dilemma is ensuring there is reliable power so customers’ lights aren’t blinking while also maintaining rates of affordability.

The village said it has been able to keep its electric rates “significantly” less than Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison (DTE) for residential and commercial customers. Clinton’s proposed 2026 average residential rate for a customer using 1,000 kw is 17.6% less than Consumers Energy and 19.3% less than Detroit Edison, according to communication from the village.

“The village’s electric service has been very reliable with limited power outages because (village) council has allocated sufficient funding for capital improvements, tree trimming and maintaining highly skilled line workers,” village officials said in January.

Customers that opt out of the village’s automated meter reading will be charged an additional service charge of $30 per month to recoup the additional staff costs to manually read the meter, part of the resolution says.

Clinton’s streetlighting is currently estimated to use 7,458 kWh per month or 89,497 kWh per year.