WFDD passes along this High Point Enterprise story on HP’s still-massive $170 million electric debt 40 years after buying into the Catawba Nuclear Station.
The hook is electric rates will drop on Oct. 1, and while that’s good news for customers in the short-term, the bigger picture is ElectriCities–the co-op of which High Point is a member–is restructuring its $902 million debt. The payoff was supposed to occur next year, but as a result of the restructuring, it has been delayed until 2030 “in order to reduce rates in the short-term,” as the Enterprise writes.
As the Enterprise also points out, High Point leaders opposed the plan to extend the payback period, but were outvoted by other co-op members. The city has also set aside a $26 million “rate stabilization fund” that “will be used to offset future rate increases for its customers.”
Customers can only hope that in 11 years the debt will actually be paid off. They’ll have to be forgiven if they’re skeptical.
