Richmond Power & Light’s residential rates will increase slightly less than expected when RP&L implements new rates Oct. 1.
General Manager Tony Foster provided the good news when presenting the RP&L board Sept. 8 with the fourth-quarter energy cost adjustment. The residential ECA will drop for the fourth quarter, the second consecutive quarter of decline. The board approved the new ECA.
The ECA enables RP&L to cover changes in energy prices it pays its provider, the Indiana Municipal Power Agency. Although the average across all RP&L rates will be a $0.000260 increase per kilowatt-hour, the residential ECA will drop from $0.013826 per kilowatt hour to $0.013277, a reduction of $0.000549.
RP&L will implement the first of a four-part rate increase Oct. 1. Richmond Common Council members, who constitute the RP&L board, approved the rate increase Aug. 17. The new total per-kilowatt-hour rate will combine the base energy rate of $0.100500 with the new $0.013277 ECA and the $0.001850 that RP&L puts into reserves for federally mandated projects.
The total residential rate beginning Oct. 1 will now be $0.115627 — about 11.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. The fourth-quarter ECA decline saves residential customers 5.49 cents for each 100 kilowatt-hours used.
The flat-fee facilities charge will not increase Oct. 1. However, the facilities charge and the per-kilowatt-hour rate will increase Jan. 1, 2027; Jan. 1, 2028; and Jan. 1, 2029.
Also during the Sept. 8 meeting, the board awarded bids for a new all-terrain track loader and trailer to Bobcat of Anderson for $73,800 and $17,000.
Bobcat bid $99,300 for a T76-2 model and provided a $25,500 trade value for RP&L’s 2015 track loader. It also bid $19,500 for a trailer and offered $2,500 in trade value.
Foster opened a single bid to provide a compact pickup truck for RP&L’s engineering department. Wetzel Ford bid $38,665, and the bid was taken under advisement.
The board also approved RP&L reallocating money in its building and grounds budget to replace a dock plate that can no longer be repaired. RP&L will move $10,000 from its security upgrades budget to cover the replacement cost.
A version of this article appeared in the September 16 2026 print edition of the Western Wayne News.
