April 22. By Dave Vieser. First, the good news: The Cornelius Town Board has decided against imposing an electric power rate hike for ElectriCities customers in July. Board members agreed that the town-owned utility has sufficient funds to begin much-needed capital improvement projects.

But given the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, hiking rates this summer was a non-starter among all five commissioners.

The bad news. They are leaning toward rate hikes for four straight years beginning in 2022.

ElectriCities managers are still fine-tuning the what they need but ElectriCities should expect to pay higher rates each year from 2022 through 2025.

It turns out a significant amount of needed maintenance has been deferred over the years causing the commissioners to consider a significant rate hike.

Electricities serves about 40 percent of the town’s customers, primarily those east of I-77.

ElectriCities is a public power utility which means the community or town owns and operates its own electric utility, distributing energy to residents. There are more than 2,000 public power communities in the United States, with more than 70 in North Carolina alone.

The town board acts as ElectriCities’ local board of directors.

The remainder of the town is served by Energy United and/or Duke Energy, and their rates are determined independent of Electricities.