Richmond Power & Light budgeted expenses of more than $98.6 million for 2026. That’s a 0.4% increase over the 2025 budget.
“When we looked at our department-by-department expenses, we tried to do our very best to have a status quo expense budget this year,” said Tony Foster, general manager for RP&L during the Dec. 1 meeting of RP&L’s board, which is composed of Richmond Common Council members. “Department heads did a really good job maintaining that, even when we factored in a 3% cost-of-living raise for our employees.”
The board unanimously approved the budget.
RP&L projects to sell 912,791,104 kilowatt-hours of electricity next year that will cost the utility $73,889,666 to purchase from the Indiana Municipal Power Agency. RP&L projects its total income at $96,763,630 with expenses of $98,612,942, which include about $2 million in liabilities for employee pensions, post-employment benefits and compensated absences as required by the Governmental Accounting Standards Board.
When the GASB liabilities are removed, RP&L projects a net income of $154,750. In reality, the utility’s annual income is regularly larger. For example, it now projects a $2.3 million net income for this year.
The capital budget plan includes $2,156,000 for RP&L’s departments and another $2,410,000 in construction projects.
The board also approved the Parallax budget projecting a net income of $284,651 and a resolution establishing the utility’s wages for 2026.
ECA rate
The residential energy cost adjustment will increase residential power rates $0.002868 for the first quarter of 2026.
The quarterly ECA fluctuates based on the wholesale power rate RP&L pays IMPA. The residential first-quarter ECA, which is added to the base rate, will be $0.013042 — about 1.3 cents per kilowatt-hour. Although that’s the highest ECA since the fourth quarter of 2024, it’s more than half a cent less than the ECA for the first quarter of 2024.
The average ECA increase for all of RP&L’s rates is $0.001501.
Directional drill
The board accepted a $188,500 bid from Ditch Witch of Brownsburg to provide a horizontal directional drill for the line department.
Vermeer Midwest provided a lower bid of $175,807.69; however, it did not meet multiple specifications.
Ditch Witch’s bid included a price of $258,500 minus $70,000 trade-in for a 2015 Ditch Witch drill and trailer.
Foster said RP&L did not expect so much in trade, so it had budgeted $280,000 for the drill.
A version of this article appeared in the December 10 2025 print edition of the Western Wayne News.