Rocky Mountain Power Customers To Pay More

Residential customers of Rocky Mountain Power will see an increase in their electricity bills.

Electric rates for residential customers of Rocky Mountain Power will increase by an average of 5.88 percent effective Tuesday, and 5.4 percent on Jan. 1 of next year, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission announced.

“The requested price increase is needed to continue safe, reliable electric service to customers in Idaho as the state’s electricity needs grow,” said vice president Karen Gilmore in a news release in May, when the company requested the increase.

The overall average increase for all customers classes combined is 7.8 percent in 2012 and 7.2 percent in 2013.

The ruling comes in response to a settlement proposed by commission staff, parties representing customer groups and Rocky Mountain in response to its request for an average 15 percent increase. The settlement is a 48 percent decrease from the company?s requested 2012 increase and prevents the company from filing another rate case to impact 2013 rates. The company?s own testimony indicated that, absent this settlement, it would have filed another general rate case later this year to recover what it estimates will be a dramatic increase in its power supply costs, the commission said.

As part of the settlement, the company agreed to not file another base rate case with rates to become effective before Jan. 1, 2014. Another condition was that the company agreed to abandon its pursuit of an increase the monthly customer service charge for residential customers. That charge will remain at current levels.

The commission cannot, by state law, arbitrarily refuse to consider utility rate increase requests, it said. State statutes require that all rate requests be considered by the commission to determine whether the expenses the utility seeks to recover through customer rates were needed to serve customers and if they were prudently incurred. When the commission denies expense recovery it must be able to legally demonstrate why the expenses were not needed or prudently incurred.

Utilities and customers can appeal the commission?s decisions in the state Supreme Court.

Also, those who do not agree with the PUC?s decision may petition the panel for reconsideration by no later than Jan. 31. Petitions for reconsideration must set forth specifically why the petitioner contends that the order is unreasonable, unlawful or erroneous. Petitions should include a statement of the nature and quantity of evidence the petitioner will offer if reconsideration is granted.

Petitions can be delivered to the commission at 472 W. Washington St. in Boise, mailed to P.O. Box 83720, Boise, ID 83720-0074, or faxed to (208) 334-3762.

See http://bit.ly/xgrxn7 for more details on the increase.