By BARBARA GREEN
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There was a 4-2 vote this week by the Bowie City Council not to increase the Power Cost Recovery Factor, which is part of the electric customer’s bill.
The item was listed as Power Cost Recovery increase and the council went into closed executive session citing competitive utility issues. After almost an hour the council returned to open session with Councilor TJay McEwen making a motion to accept the recommendation as presented by the city manager.
McEwen and Stephanie Post were the only yes votes with the motion failing. The meeting then adjourned.
There was about a dozen people in the audience who waited out the session many who afterward said on social media they felt their presence staved off a power rate increase. The majority of the city council also did not want to be the ones to raise electric rates which always creates citizen unrest.
With little information about what was proposed, City Manager Bert Cunningham said after the meeting he wanted to help educate the public on the PCRF and why he proposed an increase of .0111 that would have been just under $9 a month for an average residential customer. The city has been absorbing between $718,000 to $$806,000 during the past two fiscal years.
From information also provided to the city council at the meeting, he explained the PCRF is the variable portion of wholesale power costs and changes as needed based on factors in the wholesale market, including, but not limited to, increases or decreases in the cost of natural gas, the fuel that generates most of the electricity in Texas.

Read the full story in the weekend Bowie News.