![]() ![]() A commission decision is expected no later than March 2015. The final rates will be set by the commission after reviewing the evidence submitted by the parties. ![]() Hearings will be held by the UTC in December 2014. PacifiCorp will have an opportunity to file rebuttal testimony addressing Public Counsel and other parties’ recommendations. Other parties, such as commission staff or the industrial customers, may recommend additional reductions that would further reduce the size of any increase. The rate increase would be further reduced to $2.6 million if the commission again rejects $10 million of PacifiCorp out-of-state power costs, previously denied in PacifiCorp’s last rate case. If the UTC accepts Public Counsel’s adjustments, PacifiCorp’s electric rates would be limited to a maximum of $12.6 million (reducing the requested increase by approximately two thirds, or $20 million). Reject the company’s new version of a proposed power cost adjustment mechanism, a variation of which was rejected by the UTC in the last PacifiCorp case.Public Counsel recommends the charge remain at its current level. Reject the company’s request to increase the customer fixed charge by 81 percent, raising the fixed monthly charge customers pay from $7.75 to $14 per month.Reject significant increases to the company’s connection and reconnection fees, ranging from 69 percent to 313 percent.Reject PacifiCorp’s request for an increase to its shareholder profit margin.Highlights of the testimony include recommendations that the UTC: These fees are generally borne by the most vulnerable of PacifiCorp’s customers, and the company’s proposal would unnecessarily burden these customers, making reconnection more difficult.įerguson’s Public Counsel Unit filed expert testimony today with the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) that analyzes a number of elements of PacifiCorp’s proposal. These fees are charged when a customer has been disconnected for not paying the bill, and then needs to be reconnected. ![]() The AGO also challenged the need for dramatic increases in customer reconnection fees. “In addition, seeking to nearly double the basic monthly charge hurts customers who use less electricity, and is a deterrent to conservation.” “This would be their fifth rate increase in the last five years, and it is not justified based on our accounting analysis,” said Ferguson. Public Counsel believes the 9.5 percent rate increase for residential customers is too high. PacifiCorp serves approximately 132,000 electric customers in Yakima, Walla Walla, Garfield and Columbia Counties. SEATTLE – Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Public Counsel Unit today challenged a $32 million electric rate increase proposed by PacifiCorp, which operates in Washington as Pacific Power and Light Company. ![]()
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