OMU is reporting better numbers for July after experiencing lower net income and revenue over the past few months due to the COVID-19 pandemic and a rainier-than-normal May and June.
Despite seeing the lowest peak of megawatt usage in July over the last 10 years, electrical usage was up for most OMU customers — bringing the municipality’s net income above budget for the month.
As explained by OMU in previous meetings, monthly electrical bills run higher during the hotter months, mainly due to increased megawatt usage. The temperature in July was two degrees above average.
“All in all, we are seeing usages come back toward normal,” said General Manager Kevin Frizzell. “Industrial usage coming back up has been consistent to what we expected on the electrical side. Water usage was slightly above our budget, but a little bit less than a year ago.”
OMU is still seeing lower-than-average electrical usage from the school districts due to the delay of in-person classes, Frizzell said.
“The schools, as you can imagine, since they are still restricted and look like they will continue to be through August and September, are well below budget,” he said. “And our general service secondary is well below what we projected.”
Coming in slightly above budget was a pretty good place to be, Frizzell said, as the months of May through July brought more rain to the area than normal.
“Coming off fairly wet months of May and June, we just haven’t had those really long stretches of hot and dry summer to drive water usage,” Frizzell said.
In June, OMU fell 31% below budget for net income. Frizzell said the July numbers were moving in the right direction.
“As we go through the year, the fiscal year-to-date numbers will even out, hopefully,” he said.
Despite the COVID-19 restrictions, OMU will continue to work effectively and safely, Frizzell said. But after careful consideration, it was decided that keeping the lobby closed to in-person traffic was the safest option at this time.
“We hoped to be able to reopen our lobby in September to in-person traffic, but given what’s going on and the governor’s recommendations to reopen slowly, we’re going to continue to keep the lobby closed to in-person traffic until we get to the plateau the governor is referring to and we see our cases go down,” Frizzell said.
OMU customers can sign up for service and pay their bills online, and staff are encouraging the use of online and touchless forms of communication to reach OMU for the foreseeable future.
