GLASGOW – The Glasgow Electric Plant Board’s board of directors on Tuesday heard results of a public opinion program held earlier in March and decided to establish an advisory council that will work toward solving the city’s electric rate controversy.

Nick Lenssen, a representative of E Source, a market research firm involved with the public opinion program, laid out findings from 161 responses to an online survey, 80 responses from a March 2 open house at the TJ Health Pavilion’s Community Center and four responses via mail.

“Some customers like Infotricity and/or the alternative rate and even say they’re saving money. However, a lot of other customers dislike the new rates, often intensely,” he said.

Infotricity is the name of the rate structure the EPB implemented at the start of 2016, which charges more than $10 per kilowatt/hour during the hour of the month demand is highest. The rate structure has been the subject of continuous debate in Glasgow, with its critics arguing the rate places an unfair burden on lower-income residents.

Lenssen noted that the survey sample was not large enough to be certain that it was an accurate reflection of Glasgow’s sentiments and that, because all responses were scrubbed of any identifying information, he couldn’t guarantee that everyone who responded was an EPB customer or that nobody had submitted multiple survey responses.

“Our sample was not controlled and therefore it may or may not, we don’t know, represent accurately Glasgow residents,” he said. “It definitely represents Glasgow residents who are passionate about the subject.”

Lenssen then laid out the main concerns based on the responses E Source received. EPB Superintendent Billy Ray said the results weren’t surprising.

“The No. 1 complaint, I would say about the Infotricity rate … was the uncertainty as to when the coincident peak hour would occur,” Lenssen said.

Some other criticisms included the increase of monthly bills, the inconvenience of having to adjust to predicted peaks, a perceived arbitrariness of the increase in the monthly customer charge from $11 to roughly $22 and a perception that residential customers are subsidizing large industrial customers.

After Lenssen’s presentation, Ray told the board about a recommendation from Smart Electric Power Alliance, another market research group involved with the forum.

Ray said SEPA suggested establishing an eight- to 12-person advisory council that would include equal numbers of EPB critics, supporters on Infotricity and “statesmen” who are neutral in the controversy.

When asked after the meeting what he meant by “statesmen,” Ray said, he was “talking about people that are thoughtful, experienced members of the community that aren’t biased one way or the other.”

Ray also said SEPA suggested that the advisory council’s first meeting take place April 18, which would be before the next scheduled EPB board meeting. That means a special called meeting would be necessary if the board wants to approve the members rather than authorizing Ray to approve the members.

Freddie Norris, a Glasgow city councilman who serves on the board, made a motion to have SEPA suggest a list of people to make up the advisory council, to be approved by the board, which passed unanimously.

Chasity Lowery, a Glasgow City Council member who attended the meeting, said she likes the idea of the advisory council.

“I think the more accurate information that can be brought out and the more discussion we can have from people on all sides of the issue, the better it’ll be,” she said.

Lowery said she’s not worried about meetings being difficult to coordinate, even for a group as large as 12.

“This is very important to a huge number of people, and the people who really care will make the time,” she said.