For second time since December, Rocky Mountain Power wants rate hike

For second time since December, Rocky Mountain Power wants rate hike

Jul 17 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Steven Oberbeck The Salt Lake Tribune

For the second time in a little more than six months, Rocky Mountain Power is asking for another big rate increase.

The utility, which provides most Utahns with the power to run the appliances in their homes, asked the Utah Public Service Commission today for permission to increase its rates by another $85 million.

If the company gets its way in this rate case and an earlier one filed in December, a typical customer's electricity bill will jump by approximately 11 percent, or about $7 per month.

In December, it asked state utility regulators to allow it to raise its rates by $161 million. However, in March it was forced to reduce that request by 38 percent to $100 million after the PSC ruled the company's rates could be based only on its expenses and the amount it expected to spend on its generation and transmission system during calendar year 2008.

The company subsequently reduced its request even more, to $74.5 million after it adjusted the accounting for its income taxes. If approved at that level, the average customer's monthly bill would increase approximately by $3.50 a month.

Dave Eskelsen, spokesman for Rocky Mountain Power, said the company may pare back its latest request depending upon how much of an increase the PSC grants the company in the rate case it filed in December.

Michele Beck, director of the Committee of Consumer Services, called Rocky Mountain Power's tactic of offering to reduce its new request by whatever increase it is granted in the 2007 case as unfair and improper.

"People are already struggling with the impact of rising energy costs and we feel that Rocky Mountain Power's misuse of the system makes it even more difficult to protect consumers," Beck said.

She said it is "an abuse of the system and waste of public resources" for the company to pursue overlapping rate increase requests.

But Eskelsen said it isn't unusual for utilities that are in the midst of aggressive building programs to need to adjust their rates frequently to reflect the increasing expenses they are incurring as they strive to meet rising demand for electricity from their customers.