City of Columbia Utilities officials are defending an Oct. 1 rate increase, even as renewable energy advocates say the city might be able to use its new cash influx to become greener.
The Columbia City Council recently approved rate changes for water, electric, and solid waste. Water will increase by 10% for both base and usage fees, while electric usage fees will increase 6%. Electric rates also went up last October.
In the case of electricity, the higher rates are expected to bring in an additional $8.6 million a year.
The city’s electric utility director Gwen Corches said the increases will help pay to update older infrastructure and address the growing costs of maintenance and payroll.
“It's definitely not something we want to do. We try to keep it as minimal as we possibly can. But for the electric utility specifically, we have a lot of factors coming together. We have aging infrastructure that requires more maintenance work, a lot of work, whether that's from power lines or in power plants, requires work with contractors, contractors are bringing their prices up. Supply chain challenges and material costs are going up all across the U.S. and even in other countries,” Corches said.
One of the efforts the city is implementing with this increased revenue is to install new meters in Columbia homes to track energy usage and see if bills can be reduced and rates can be reevaluated.
“I think it will bring about a lot of opportunities and positive change for everyone in the community. A couple of examples are that the residents themselves, they will now have agency to look at their own bills,” Corches said.
Where does the power come from?
The city relies on various sources for its power. The current plan calls for the city to buy power from outside Columbia, which could mean the city has less insulation from inflationary pressures. A report from 2025 shows renewable sources accounted for less than 25% of the city's power last year.
Renew Missouri Executive Director James Owen says the city is hurting itself both in the short term and the long term by not committing more money to renewable power generation with the rate increases.
“The City of Columbia has renewable energy goals written in their ordinances. They've got a population that wants to see their city use more renewable energy. There are companies that want to move to areas that have access to sustainable energy. That's the reason why the city of Columbia should be trying to get more renewable energy,” Owen said.
Although the city does hope to generate more renewable energy, Corches said he considers it a long-term goal.