By: Corinne Miller

Bucks County Herald - August 30, 2007

Quakertown Borough will have a 30 percent increase in the price its pays for electricity next year under the terms of a con-tract approved with American Municipal Power-Ohio.

How much of that increase will be passed on to customers remains to be seen.

AMP-Ohio provides electricity to more than 2,000 public power systems throughout the country. The five-year deal calls for the borough to pay $79.79 per megawatt-hour starting in January, an $18 increase over this year's price.

Lesser annual increases will see the borough's cost hit $81.17 per kilowatt hour in 2012, the last year of the contract.

In the past, the borough has not passed the full increase on to customers.

AMP-Ohio previously increased the borough's energy rate in 2006 by $500,000 because of a loophole in their contract that permitted them to do so.

The wholesale rate change shocked officials at the time, but Council Vice President Jim Roberts said it was "within their right to do so."

"We just didn't read it," Roberts said, referring back to the previous contract.

The motion to approve the AMP-Ohio's contract was approved, however, with Councilman David Zaiser the lone dissenter.

"It doesn't make sense to go back to the place that put the screws to us," he said.

This time, the borough has looked over the contract closely and there is no such loophole in the current contract, though it doesn't mean that the borough still won't have to pay more over time.

Councilman Donald Rosenberger, who oversees the public utilities committee, said there's a chance their rates could be raised if AMP-Ohio has trou-ble getting electricity from their suppliers.

Even with that risk, the borough decided to go ahead with the contract, citing other municipalities that have decided to "go it alone" have been struggling to keep up.

Quakertown is part of a group with 16 other municipalities that obtain electricity as a group through AMP-Ohio. All municipalities but three are considering the contract.

In the future, the borough may consider looking into alternative forms of energy, but for now, they are content to stay with the consortium of other municipalities that will guarantee electricity throughout the borough.