With a municipal utility, we pay electric bills just as we do now to our IOU DTE. We do not pay for service or infrastructure with our taxes. DTE’s residential rate of 17.5 cents per kilowatt hour is 26% higher than the national average. Customers of Michigan’s municipal utilities enjoy lower rates, as well as more reliable electricity. We anticipate that the same will hold true here in Ann Arbor, once our utility payments fund our service and infrastructure, staying in our community. In nearby Chelsea, electric rates are roughly half of what we pay DTE.
The difference is also in what we pay for. With DTE, we pay 9.9% to shareholders for return on equity. We pay for lobbyists who fight renewable energy legislation. We pay for deferred investment in infrastructure with power outages, spoiled food, and medical equipment that cannot run without power.