Lyons Electric Bills Now Split the Evening Into Peak Hours. The Prices Haven't Caught Up Yet.

When buyers ask a seller for twelve months of utility bills in Lyons this fall, they are reading a pricing system that is about to change. The Town of Lyons runs its own electric utility. It has reprogrammed residential meters so bills now break usage into time-of-use tiers. For now, every one of those tiers is billed at the same price. The Board of Trustees will decide when the peak, mid-peak and off-peak tiers get different prices. Once they do, two houses with identical past bills could cost very different amounts to run. The difference will depend on when each one pulls its power.

That makes the electric bill one of the few monthly costs in Lyons a buyer can partly control. It also makes it one of the easiest to misjudge during a purchase.

Where Lyons Stands This Month

Here is the town's own timeline, in order.

In May 2025, town staff gave trustees a time-of-use proposal. It had three tiers, the same all year and seven days a week, and it applied to residential and non-residential customers alike, net-metered accounts included. Trustees directed staff to work with the town's billing vendor, Caselle, and come back with an ordinance. An October 2025 implementation update said bills would first show usage in each period at the same $0.1339 per kilowatt hour. Board authorization and a rate ordinance would come later.

The June 3, 2026 Utilities and Engineering Board minutes put it plainly. "No rates will be changed. This is just segregating the metering into the various tiers of time blocks." The same minutes record the goal of changing tier prices in "a shoulder season either this fall or next spring."

By the board's September 16, 2026 meeting, staff had switched all residential meters to show the different tiers on bills. Three-phase meters were still being converted. The minutes expected "many questions" once the October bills went out.

The town's 2026 fee schedule, effective April 1, 2026, still lists one energy rate for every hour.

The right-hand column is a proposal from May 2025, not an adopted tariff. As of the draft agenda for the trustees' October 19, 2026 meeting, no time-of-use rate ordinance had been listed.

Why One Hour a Month Sets So Much of the Price

The reason Lyons is doing this comes from how the town buys its power. Lyons buys wholesale electricity from MEAN, the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska. In the May 2025 presentation, staff said roughly half of the town's wholesale cost depends on its single highest hour of demand each month. The June 2026 utility board minutes repeat that roughly half. They add that MEAN's Fixed Cost Recovery Charge rests on a 36-month average.

That peak hour lands in the same place almost every time. The presentation charted Lyons' monthly peaks by hour from 2016 through 2023. It found the peaks "do not significantly vary by season or day of week." That explains why the proposed peak window is one fixed evening block from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. all year, with no summer and winter versions.

Under a flat rate, a kilowatt hour used at 6 p.m. costs a customer the same as one used at 2 a.m., even though the 6 p.m. hour drives the town's wholesale bill. The proposal sets peak at four times off-peak, with mid-peak in between. The presentation called this a 4:2.5:1 ratio, adjusted to minimize "effect on overall net revenue." Staff also noted that wholesale costs alone would point to a 5:1 ratio. A consultant, Tierra Resources, recommended 3.3:1.

Some simple math with the proposed numbers shows what's at stake. Ten kilowatt hours cost $1.34 at today's flat rate. Under the proposed tiers, the same ten kilowatt hours would cost $3.30 between 5 and 8 p.m. and $0.83 overnight. Moving a load into the evening would cost more than it does today. Moving it out of the evening would cost less.

The Second Pressure on the Same Bill

The tier prices aren't the only number that could move. In January 2026, the MEAN board voted to join the Southwest Power Pool's expansion, effective April 1, 2026. Lyons is a voting member of MEAN. A recommendation memo prepared for the September 2, 2026 utility board meeting says both MEAN and Lyons "were surprised by the dramatic increase in transmission cost." The new transmission charges first showed up on the town's June MEAN bill.

The memo recommends a 9 percent increase to both the base charge and the energy rate. It calculates a shortfall of $142,909 against $1,638,221 in electric revenue from the 2025 audit.

The town's two documents measure the transmission jump against different baselines. The memo projects new rates 132 percent above the WAPA LAP transmission rates the town had expected to pay. The September 2 meeting minutes describe a 50 percent increase over what the town actually paid under WAPA LAP, which could cost about $12,000 a month. Both point the same way, and both lead to the same 9 percent shortfall.

The same minutes tie the two changes together.

"We feel like we shouldn't be in deficit mode when we switch to Time of Use, since that will initially cause a shortfall."

The minutes say the report would reach trustees through the budget process, with the final budget due in late October. Neither the 9 percent increase nor a time-of-use ordinance appeared on the trustee agendas posted for September 8 through October 19. If a 9 percent increase were applied to today's schedule as recommended, the 2S base charge would go from $12.00 to about $13.08 and the flat rate from $0.1339 to about $0.146 per kilowatt hour. That's arithmetic on a recommendation, not an adopted price.

Which Houses Feel It, and Why

Because the pricing would follow the clock, the features that matter are the ones that set when a house uses power.

Rooftop solar on older installations. Without a production meter, MEAN bills legacy net-metered systems at their nameplate rating rather than their actual output. The September 2 minutes say this is driving up Lyons' costs. The fix would be either a change from MEAN or production meters on the grandfathered systems. The September 2 recommendation memo refers to a current January 2030 requirement for solar production meters on legacy installations and suggests requiring them sooner. On a home with older solar, the metering setup is now a live question rather than a 2030 one. The minutes also note that MEAN raised its size limit for distributed generation from 20 kW to 100 kW.

EV charging and heat pumps. The presentation recommended shifting EV charging to off-peak hours and named high-efficiency heat pumps among the efficient technologies it wants to encourage. It does not set a separate EV or heat-pump tariff. A charger with a timer fits the proposed tiers. One that starts when the car gets home at 5:30 p.m. does not.

Evening-heavy households. The town's own presentation acknowledged concerns that workers coming home during peak hours, and restaurants, may not be able to move their usage. Its answer was that customers should pay actual costs and that efficiency and equipment choices can soften the impact.

Meter type. The fee schedule charges $12 a month for a 2S meter and $24 for a non-2S meter. Three-phase meters were still being converted to tier reporting as of mid-September.

Questions to Bring to a Lyons Purchase

1. Ask for recent electric bills, and specifically for any issued in October 2026 or later. Those are the first to show usage by tier. Earlier bills show only totals.
2. Read the peak and mid-peak lines against the proposed prices in the table above. That shows how much of the household's use falls between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m.
3. Confirm the meter type and whether the property has three-phase service.
4. If there is solar, ask whether it's a legacy net-metered system and whether it has a production meter.
5. If there is an EV charger or heat pump, ask whether it runs on a schedule or a timer.
6. Check the Town of Lyons trustee agendas for a time-of-use ordinance or an electric rate change before you close.

This post is general information about published town rates and proposals, not legal, tax or financial advice. Confirm your own situation with the Town of Lyons utilities office and the right professional.

How Water Fits the Same Pattern

Lyons sets its own water rates too, and those also depend on a supplier upstream. Resolution 2026-13, adopted March 16, 2026, approved a water rate schedule that raises the residential water base charge from $29.10 to $30.15 a month. The adopted 2026 budget says water operating costs reflected a 10 percent increase in Longmont's water rates. With both water and power, a decision made outside Lyons reaches local bills through a vote by a small town board. Those meetings are public, and their agendas are posted ahead of time.

A Few Questions I Hear Often

Did Lyons electric rates change with the new bill format? No. According to the June 2026 utility board minutes, the meter changes only sort usage into time blocks. Trustees will decide when the tier prices actually differ.

Will time-of-use be optional? The 2025 proposal covered all residential and non-residential customers, net meters included, and described no opt-out. The final terms will be in whatever ordinance trustees adopt.

Is the 9 percent increase final? It's a utility board recommendation going to trustees through the budget process. It had not appeared on a trustee agenda as of October 19, 2026.

If you're looking at a home in Lyons and want help reading the tier lines on a seller's bills before you write an offer, New Roots Real Estate can walk through them with you and keep an eye on the trustee agendas while you're under contract. Schedule a Consultation, and bring the bills.