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SALT LAKE CITY -- It could get a bit more expensive to turn the lights on. Rocky Mountain Power is asking the Utah Public Service Commission for a 13.7 percent general rate increase.
Rocky Mountain Power spokesman David Eskelsen said the utility's total request is $232.4 million. If fully approved, the average household electricity bill could increase about $10 per month.
"We understand that a price increase is never welcomed," he said. "We recognize that it's a large increase."
He said the biggest components to the increase request are the ever-increasing cost to produce electricity and heavy investments in equipment to serve customers. The funding is needed to maintain and upgrade existing facilities as well as increase capacity to meet increasing customer demand, he also said.
"The cost to produce power is probably 50 percent higher currently than it had been," Eskelsen said.
He added that the newest power plants the company is constructing are primarily natural gas and wind projects. While they are among the lowest cost options today, either one would be about twice as expensive to build as the generating plants built in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Eskelsen said the utility is building power plants, transmission lines and neighborhood distribution equipment as well as improving environmental controls to ensure safe and reliable electric service is ready for customers today and in the future.
The last two increases were each 2.2 percent, with the most recent general rate hike taking effect this month. The previous hike was in 2010.
As for this latest request, it caught one local analyst off-guard.
"It's more than I expected," said Michele Beck, director of the Utah Office of Consumer Services, the state's consumer advocacy agency. While she understands that electricity costs are rising, Beck said she was surprised by the increase in some costs listed in the RMP filing.
She said, by statute, the commission will review the request over the next 240 days with new rates expected to be implemented sometime in the fall.
"I understand the drivers (of the cost increases), but I'm surprised by the magnitude (of the hikes)," Beck said. "So we'll be digging in (for a detailed review of the request)."
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