CLAREMORE, Okla. — On Monday night, Claremore citizens voiced their concerns in regard to last week's heat-related power outages.
One citizen, Eddie Lidwell, thinks the people of Claremore deserve more.
"While it’s no big secret that we are paying more than surrounding areas, and surrounding services, we don’t see the value in it," Lidwell said.
A recent state audit showed Claremore citizens are paying 15% more in electric bills than other communities with municipal power.
- Previous coverage >>> Claremore residents dealing with power outages
Claremore buys power from GRDA, and sells it to citizens from their own electric company.
"We’re doing that with what we’ve got, and what we’ve got, in comparison to what it’s gonna take to fix it all, ain’t a lot," Claremore City Manager John Fears said.
Fears said the biggest concern is substation 2, which shoulders the most burden for the city's power grid.
"I can tell you right now, the simplest answer at sub-station 2 is to go out and purchase another 20 megawatt or 25 megawatt transformer. Anybody wanna take a guess at what that would cost us? 8-9 million dollars and it’s about a 2-4 year lead time to get that here," Fears said.
Fears made it clear the city has no intention of switching to a private provider like PSO or OG&E.
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