After almost two years’ worth of effort, Seattle City Light has issued a Draft Strategic Plan for the utility covering the period 2013 – 2018. In consultation with an eight member citizen Review Panel, the utility has chartered a proposed course that would improve the utility’s operational efficiency and bolster its reliability and predictability of service and rates. If fully implemented, this plan envisions annual rate increases over the six year planning horizon of 4.7% (if the "preferred path" is chosen). In this path, the utility proposed to meet and exceed conservation resource acquisition beyond that required by the I-937 statute. The Plan does also provide an alternative path (to the preferred one) that would accelerate its spending on conservation, renewables, and environmental efforts. Over the next month, SCL is seeking public comment through various stakeholder sessions, public meetings, and through web based responses. The Strategic Plan can be viewed HERE. After the public comment period, the Plan will be submitted to the Mayor for review and approval and then to the City Council for its deliberation and approval. SCL is planning to revisit the document on a rolling two year period