Settlement resolves Rocky Mountain Power rate request

BOISE, Idaho — All parties have reached a settlement in a rate review request Rocky Mountain Power filed May 27 with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to implement the utility’s long-term plan to modernize how the company produces, transports, and delivers electricity to power Idaho’s future.

If the settlement is approved by the commission, beginning in 2022 the proposed new base rates would result in an increase of $8 million or 2.9 percent before applying the proposed federal tax refund. The resulting net increase would be $3.8 million or 1.4 percent for customers overall. On average, residential customers would see a base-rate increase of about $4.44 and a net increase of about $3.02 on their monthly bill.

Other key settlement terms:

• The settlement represents a compromise of the contested issues of the parties to this case, including the Idaho Public Utilities Commission staff, Idaho Irrigation Pumpers Association, Bayer Corp., PacifiCorp Idaho Industrial Customers and Rocky Mountain Power.
• The customer service charge for Electric Service Schedule No. 1 - Residential Service will increase from $5 to $8 per month, which is the first change to this charge since 2011.
• Rocky Mountain Power will pass through to customers the remaining $8.5 million in federal tax reductions from 2017 over the next two years through a bill credit, Electric Service Schedule No. 197.

After eight years of significant improvements to Rocky Mountain Power’s energy network serving customers in Idaho without raising rates, this settlement better aligns rates with the costs of providing service to customers and allows Idaho to continue to have some of the most affordable, reliable and increasingly renewable power in the country.

“Rocky Mountain Power is proud to serve our customers with affordable, safe, reliable and increasingly clean electricity,” said Joelle Steward, senior vice president, Rocky Mountain Power. “Rocky Mountain Power has the lowest average electricity price of any large electrical utility in the Intermountain West with prices that are about 44 percent lower than the national average.”

For more information on how Rocky Mountain Power’s prices compare with other utilities, see rockymountainpower.net/compare.

The last increase to Rocky Mountain Power’s base rates was in 2014. During the past decade, the company continued to prepare for the future with important renewable energy and electric grid upgrades that nearly doubles the amount of renewable energy capacity available to serve customers. With no fuel costs, these renewable energy projects are expected to save customers several hundred million dollars over the lives of these assets. During 2014 to 2018, and again in 2020, declining costs of fuel and wholesale power resulted in modest reductions to Idaho customer bills in each of those years.

What’s next?

The Idaho commission is reviewing the settlement and held hearings Nov. 15 and 16 to consider its terms. If approved, the commission will issue a written order and the new rates would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022. Based on the settlement terms, the following base and net changes are listed by rate schedule:

The public may review the settlement on the commission’s website, www.puc.idaho.gov, under Case No. PAC-E-21-07. In the Company document section, look for the document titled, “SETTLEMENT STIPULATION-REDACTED.PDF.” Customers may also subscribe to the commission’s RSS feed to receive periodic updates via email. Case documents are required to be available at the company’s offices in Rexburg, Preston, Shelley and Montpelier, or on the web at rockymountainpower.net/regulation.