City Water and Light Plant (Jonesboro, AR) Rate Selection Guide
City Water and Light (CWL) of Jonesboro is a small Arkansas municipal utility providing electric, water, and sewer service to roughly 39,000-40,700 electric customers in Craighead County. Bill access runs through a Paymentus payment portal and CWL MobilePay app, but the utility has no AMI interval data, Green Button, EDI, or API — third-party access is limited to manual, customer-authorized bill sharing.
Market Overview
City-operated municipal utility with self-set rates outside Arkansas PSC jurisdiction. Bundled monopoly service; participates in MISO at wholesale.
Need to pull your actual usage data to compare rates? See the City Water and Light Plant (Jonesboro, AR) Data Access Guide →
Current Rate Schedules
City Water and Light (CWL) Jonesboro is one of the lowest-cost electric utilities in the country and has not raised base electric rates since 1984, with no increase projected. CWL owns 556 MW of generating capacity (45% low-sulfur coal, 31% natural gas, 14% federal hydro, 9% solar) against a 2025 peak of ~316 MW, and that excess capacity underpins its pricing. Per EIA data, average realized rates are about 6.63¢/kWh residential, 6.77¢/kWh commercial, and 5.08¢/kWh industrial. CWL does not publish a full tariff book online — demand-metered C&I schedules include demand charges, an Energy Adjustment Clause (EAC) tracking wholesale fuel costs, power factor provisions, and discounts for primary metering and customer-owned transformers. Contact CWL's Energy Marketing group to confirm current schedule terms.
Effective: January 1, 2025 · Full Tariff Book →
| Schedule | Type | Applicability | Structure | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Commercial General Service | commercial | Small and medium commercial accounts (~5,600 commercial customers) | Customer charge plus energy rate with EAC adjustment; demand metering applied for larger commercial loads. Average realized commercial rate ~6.77¢/kWh (EIA 2024). Contact CWL to confirm current charges — schedules are not published in a machine-readable tariff book. | ~6.77¢/kWh average |
| Large Commercial / Demand-Metered Service | commercial | Demand-metered commercial accounts | Customer charge, per-kW demand charge on the monthly peak, energy charge, and EAC. Power factor provisions apply; primary metering and customer-owned transformer discounts available. See CWL for current rates. | —+ Per-kW; contact CWL for current rate |
| Industrial Service | industrial | Large industrial accounts (38 industrial customers consuming ~578 GWh/year — over 40% of CWL's load) | Demand and energy charges plus EAC. CWL's published simulated industrial bill: 1,000 kW peak / 612,000 kWh = $38,315/month, an all-in 6.26¢/kWh assuming 95% power factor, primary metering and customer-owned transformer discounts, current EAC, taxes included. Scales linearly: 5,000 kW / 3,060,000 kWh = $191,575. | ~6.26¢/kWh all-in (simulated)+ Included in simulated bill; contact CWL for components |
Rate Recommendations by Use Case
Energy-intensive manufacturing or food processing site selection
CWL's ~6.26¢/kWh all-in industrial pricing, frozen base rates since 1984, and 240 MW of headroom above the system peak make Jonesboro one of the cheapest power locations in the US for large loads.
An average US industrial rate near 8-9¢/kWh means a 5 MW, 3 GWh/month facility saves over $1M/year at CWL's simulated $191,575/month bill. The utility's owned generation portfolio and 0% projected base rate increase de-risk long-term energy budgets.
- Engage CWL's Energy Marketing Administrator early — rates are confirmed per-customer, not published
- Maintain 95%+ power factor to keep the discounted billing basis used in CWL's simulated bills
- Consider owning your transformer and taking primary metering to capture both published discounts
Commercial buildings, retail, and offices in Jonesboro
Commercial accounts average ~6.77¢/kWh — roughly a third below the national commercial average — with simple, stable billing.
With base rates unchanged for four decades, the main bill variables are consumption and the Energy Adjustment Clause. Energy efficiency still pays, but rate-arbitrage opportunities are limited because rates are already low and schedule options are few.
- Track the EAC line item — it is the only component that moves with wholesale fuel costs
- Demand-metered accounts should still manage 15-minute peaks; confirm your demand charge with CWL
- Request 12-24 months of billing history directly from CWL for budgeting, since no portal export exists
Multi-site portfolio operators with a Jonesboro location
Portfolio energy managers should treat CWL sites as low-cost anchors but plan for manual data collection.
CWL offers no Green Button, EDI, or API access, so utility-bill automation platforms cannot pull data programmatically. The cost upside is real, but the data workflow is PDF bills and customer-service requests.
- Set up a standing monthly bill-forwarding process (email PDF) to your bill management platform
- Benchmark the Jonesboro site's $/kWh against portfolio peers to quantify the CWL advantage
- For interval-level analysis, ask CWL customer service whether demand-meter read data can be provided on request
Cost Optimization Strategies
CWL's rates are already among the nation's lowest and its base rates have not moved since 1984, so optimization here is less about rate switching and more about power factor, demand discipline, metering/transformer discounts, and the Energy Adjustment Clause. For large loads, the biggest decision is simply locating load in CWL territory.
Power factor maintenance
For: Demand-metered commercial and industrial customers
CWL's industrial bill simulations assume 95% power factor. Facilities below that threshold face billing adjustments; capacitor banks on motor-heavy loads keep the billing basis favorable and free system capacity.
Primary metering and customer-owned transformer discounts
For: Industrial and large commercial customers
CWL discounts bills for customers who take service at primary voltage and own their transformers. For new industrial construction, specifying customer-owned transformation captures a permanent bill discount.
Peak demand management
For: Demand-metered C&I accounts
Demand-metered accounts pay for monthly peak kW. Staggering equipment starts and scheduling batch processes off the facility peak reduces the demand component, which matters most for the 38 industrial accounts that drive 40%+ of CWL's load.
Energy Adjustment Clause (EAC) tracking
For: All customers
The EAC is the only moving piece of a CWL bill, passing through wholesale fuel cost fluctuations. Tracking it month to month separates controllable consumption changes from market-driven cost changes and validates bills.
Load growth siting in CWL territory
For: Expanding industrial and commercial operators
With 556 MW of capacity against a 316 MW peak and a stated 0% projected base rate increase, expanding operations in Jonesboro rather than neighboring Entergy (10.3¢/kWh commercial) or Craighead Electric territory is itself the largest available energy cost lever.
To implement these strategies, you need your 15-minute interval data. Learn how to download City Water and Light Plant (Jonesboro, AR) interval data →
Frequently Asked Questions
How do commercial customers access CWL billing data?▾
Through the Paymentus portal at ipn.paymentus.com/cp/cwl using the account number from the bill. The portal shows the current bill and recent statements, downloadable as PDF. There is no CSV export or usage analytics — for monthly consumption history beyond what is displayed, call customer service at (870) 930-3300.
Does CWL offer interval or smart meter data?▾
No. CWL uses traditional analog meters read monthly, so the only consumption data is the monthly total. There is no AMI deployment, Green Button, or sub-monthly granularity — customers needing finer detail must install independent monitoring hardware.
Can an energy consultant pull CWL data for a client portfolio?▾
Only manually. There is no API, aggregator integration, or third-party authorization system. The practical workflow: collect a signed Letter of Authorization per customer, request PDF bills from customer service (or have the customer share portal downloads), and key the data into your analysis tools. Budget 2-4 weeks per customer.
Does CWL support EDI for invoice automation?▾
No. There are no 810/820 transactions, ANSI X12 support, VAN connections, or trading partner program. Enterprise EDI exists at larger Arkansas utilities like Entergy Arkansas, but CWL's ~39,000-customer municipal scale has not justified it.
What does Nectar's roadmap support level mean for CWL accounts?▾
CWL is on Nectar's roadmap: automated ingestion is planned but not yet productized. Today, Nectar works with CWL data through customer-shared bill PDFs and LOA-based manual requests while native support is built.
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