City of Bryan used less power than was forecast in 2023.

The City of Bryan used less power than was forecast in 2023, the Bryan Board of Public Affairs learned. Bryan Municipal Utilities Director of Utilities, Derek Schultz told the board the city used 3.3% less megawatt hours of energy last year than had been predicted, and the amount was 4.8% less than what was used in 2022. The energy sources owned by BMU, including the Auglaize River hydro plant, a solar field and the power plant, were down 1% from 2022 to 2023 and made up 5.7% of the city’s energy portfolio. Schultz said wholesale power costs for BMU were up 11.1% and that the market price for sale of excess energy was lower than what had been budgeted. However, he also added those budgeted prices were set in 2022. Helping to keep costs down for customers was a payment of about $1 million dollars BMU received as part of a metering issue settlement with AEP. The BPA had agreed to spread that out throughout the year by issuing a power supply cost adjustment credit of $87,000 dollars per month, which lowered overall costs.