DALTON, Ga. — Dalton Utilities industrial customers could pay lower electrical rates in 2018.

Utility officials presented the board with a draft 2018 budget that called for a 5 percent cut for industrial demand customers who equalize their load over a 24-hour day and a 2 percent cut for similar customers who tend to be larger users of electricity.

The draft 2018 budget forecasts $209.3 million in revenue, up from $206.2 million in 2017.

“If you go to the Georgia Public Service Commission website, to the residential rate survey, you can see that we have the lowest residential rates in the state,” said CEO Tom Bundros. “Unfortunately, we do not have the lowest industrial rates in the state. These cuts are needed to keep us competitive.”

According to the industry website Electricity Local, residential rates in Dalton are 11.01 percent below the state average, but industrial rates are 0.84 percent above the state average.

Water customers will see a 2 percent increase in rates. For a residential water customer inside Dalton city limits using an average 7,500 gallons of water of month, that increase will be 49 cents per month. For a residential customer outside the city using an average 7,500 gallons of water a month, that increase will be 66 cents per month.

Those increases will help pay off up to $75 million in bonds the Dalton City Council voted to allow the utility to issue earlier this month. Utility officials say most of that money will be used to repair and improve the water system and will require 2 percent water rate increases over four or five years to pay back.

OptiLink cable TV customers will see a $3 a month increase for each package.

“That’s due entirely to the increase costs of content,” said Bundros. “For the past several years, content providers have increased costs faster than our ability to pass on those costs.”

There will be no changes to residential electricity rates or to natural gas or wastewater rates.

The board is scheduled to vote on the budget at its Nov. 13 meeting.

“The board is comfortable with the process the staff has used,” said Chairman Joe Yarbrough. “Over the next month, we will be digging down into the details and making sure that we are comfortable with them as well and making sure they will serve our community well.”