ZELIENOPLE — Borough council voted at a recent meeting to approve an ordinance revising some of its electric rules and regulations.

“Last year council requested the staff to basically overhaul, update and amend the electric service rules, regulations and procedures in the borough,” manager Don Pepe said.

One of the biggest changes is that customers will have power shut off after being 60 days delinquent on their bill. Previously there was a 90-day period before power was shut-off for a delinquent bill.

The ordinance also shortens the amount of time of no-shutoff period. The borough will now refrain from shutting off delinquent accounts between Dec. 1 and March 1. Under the old ordinance, it extended to April 1.

The no-shutoff period used to apply to all customers, but will now only apply to residential accounts. Businesses that are delinquent on their bills can be shut off during the winter.

An account holder who has service disconnected must pay a $35 fee at the borough building to have power turned back on. The borough has about 2,200 electric customers.

By tightening restrictions on customers who pay late, the borough hopes to save some money, said Andrew Spencer, assistant to the borough manager.

Zelienople buys its electricity from American Municipal Power, a nonprofit wholesaler based in Columbus, Ohio.

Rather than setting rates on its own, it simply passes along rate increases to its customers from the wholesaler.

As approved by council, electric rates increased by 7.7 percent and water rates were increased by 4.4 percent, effective in April.