electric

How Lebanon's Utilities Actually Work: A Conversation With Public Works Director Richard Shockley With electric rates set to go up in 2027 and a lot of public questions about why, I sat down with Public Works Director Richard Shockley to get answers from the source. The Public Works Department recently announced rates will go up in 2027. I reached out and asked if Richard Shockley would come on and explain how our infrastructure works. We get upset because we don't have all the information. We make assumptions about how a system works or where the costs lie. We sat down for about twenty minutes to talk through what Public Works does, how the utility system works, why rates are going up, and what we actually pay. WHAT PUBLIC WORKS COVERS Public Works manages water, sewer, electric, streets, stormwater, and the city fleet. The city maintains roads inside city boundaries. MoDOT handles Highway 5, Jefferson at 64, Highway 32 east and west, and I-44. A pothole on Jefferson or an issue at a railroad crossing on a state route is a state issue, not the city. STORMWATER Lebanon sits on a plateau, which is a benefit. Three major watersheds carry water away from the city in different directions. The system moves millions of gallons during a rain event, using pipes, drainage ways, and detention ponds that hold stormwater back so it releases gradually. DRINKING WATER City water comes from deep wells, most between 1,400 and 2,000 feet deep. Wells pump 400 to 1,000 gallons per minute. The water system isn't just for drinking and businesses. It's designed for fire protection. Water towers hold about 36 hours of usage so the fire department has volume during a major fire. The city averages 2.7 million gallons per day. WASTEWATER The treatment plant runs about 18 tests per week on site and sends more samples to outside labs. Across the year that's 6,000 to 7,000 tests for process control and state discharge permit compliance. Treated water discharges into the Dry Auglaize, which flows toward Lake of the Ozarks. WHERE OUR ELECTRICITY COMES FROM Lebanon is part of a 35-city utility pool in Missouri. The pool either buys ownership in power plants or signs Power Purchase Agreements, usually 20 to 30 years. The portfolio includes a plant in Nebraska City, plants in southern Arkansas, a coal plant in Illinois at the mouth of the mine, plants in the Kansas City area, hydroelectric on the Missouri River and White River basin, and wind in western Kansas. Power arrives in Lebanon at 69,000 volts from Show-Me Electric, runs through a transmission loop, drops to 7,200 volts at substations, then to 240 volts at homes and 460 at businesses. WHY RATES MOVE UP AND DOWN The pool doesn't have 100 percent of its needs locked in every day. Sometimes it sells surplus, sometimes it buys off the market. Electricity is traded as a commodity, like corn or coffee, and the market reacts to weather. This past winter during the extended cold spell, the pool was buying power at three to three and a half times what it had been selling for. The city buffers that with reserves so customers don't get hit with a $1,000 bill. Instead, your bill might go up $50 or $75 because you're using more during the cold stretch. Public Works tries to hold a 20 to 30 percent reserve to cover market spikes and storm damage. A May 2020 straight line wind event cost the city almost $2 million in rebuilds. Federal disaster declarations don't come through reliably anymore, so more of that cost stays with the city. WHAT WE ACTUALLY PAY National average: 17 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Missouri average: 11 to 13 cents per kilowatt hour. Lebanon after the adjustment: just under 11 cents (0.1079). Residential customers are billed at the kilowatt hour rate with demand baked in. Larger commercial customers pay both an energy cost and a demand cost based on peak usage. WHY INFRASTRUCTURE COSTS KEEP CLIMBING Since COVID there hasn't been a normal inflation rate. Power poles have gone up three to three and a half times since 2023. Transformers and component parts have climbed 10 to 15 percent every year. A lot of utility cost isn't the energy itself, it's the cost of delivering it. RELIABILITY On May 20, Lebanon is receiving an award from the American Public Power Association placing the city in the top 25 percent in the nation for reliability. The city has earned this award multiple years running. CLOSING Lebanon is a hometown utility. When you call with a question or an outage, you're not calling a call center in another country. The people running it live in the same community you do. If something on your bill doesn't make sense, or you want to understand what's behind a rate change, the city is there to talk it through. Better information leads to better questions, and better questions lead to a better understanding of the place we all live.