As mercury is falling, power bills are risingDec 5 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Mai Hoang Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.While you brace for the cold, brace for an increase in your electric bill. Rates for average residential customers of Pacific Power in the Yakima Valley will go up 5.5 percent on Tuesday under an order approved Wednesday by the state Utilities and Transportation Commission. The monthly bill for a customer using 1,300 kilowatt hours a month will increase by $6 to $112.48. Residents who heat with natural gas have already seen their bills rise. Last month, Cascade Natural Gas raised the average bill by $8.43 a month. The increase reflected the utility's rising cost of purchasing natural gas. Portland-based Pacific Power was granted a total rate increase of $16.7 million, which is below the company's original request of 14.1 percent, or $42.8 million. State regulators rejected the original amount because they said the increase would have provided the utility with a rate-of-return above the 7.74 percent previously authorized by the commission. The commission also moderated the increase because it found that power supply costs had dropped since the utility filed its original request back in February. The state Attorney General's public counsel, which represented residential consumers in the case, argued that the original increase was not justified. The commission heard significant opposition from the public. Out of 86 public comments from ratepayers statewide, more than 87 percent opposed the increase. Since 2003, Pacific Power's residential rate has increased by about 85 percent. Pacific Power serves a customer base of slightly more than 100,000 homes, businesses and farms in Yakima County. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=30838376& |