Rocky Mountain Power rate filing reflects low-cost, clean energy transformation

BOISE, Idaho — Rocky Mountain Power filed a request May 27 with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission to implement its long-term plan to modernize how the company produces, transports, and delivers electricity to power Idaho’s future.

After eight years of significant improvements to Rocky Mountain Power’s energy backbone serving customers in Idaho without raising rates, this proposal aligns rates with the actual cost 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. The request includes the following projects:

• Rocky Mountain Power’s Energy Vision 2020 renewable energy and transmission initiatives, other wind repowering projects, installation of clean air improvements on certain generating units, and continued investment in the transmission system.
• Significant capital investment has been made to rebuild the Rigby to Rexburg transmission line to improve reliability for customers in the southeastern Idaho region. This work is part of a larger project to increase the capacity of the Goshen substation. Once completed, the project will improve system reliability and provide for increased customer needs.

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.

Beginning in 2022, the proposed new rates would result in an increase of $19 million or 7% for customers overall. On average, residential customers would see an increase of about $10.32 per month.

“Rocky Mountain Power is proud to serve our customers with affordable, safe, reliable and increasingly clean electricity,” said Gary Hoogeveen, president, and CEO of 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 25 percent lower than the national average.”

In pre-filed testimony supporting the company’s request, Hoogeveen noted that the company’s strict cost-control measures have been accomplished while also improving reliability to the 85,600 customers the company serves in Idaho.

What’s next?

The Idaho commission will examine Rocky Mountain Power’s requests and will determine whether the request should be accepted as filed, modified, or rejected. The rate change ordered by the commission would take effect on Jan. 1, 2022. The commission has the authority to set final rates that may be lower than the company’s request, depending on the outcome of its examination. Rocky Mountain Power’s initial request proposes the following changes by rate schedule:

The public will have an opportunity to comment on the proposal as the commission studies the company’s request. A copy of the company’s application is available for public review on the commission’s website, www.puc.idaho.gov, under Case No. PAC-E-21-07. Customers may also subscribe to the commission’s RSS feed to receive periodic updates via email. The request is required to be available at the company’s offices in Rexburg, Preston, Shelley and Montpelier, or online at https://www.rockymountainpower.net/about/rates-regulation/idaho-regulatory-filings.html.