Electric rates will rise this month
Residential and small farm customers of Washington’s private utilities will see an immediate increase in their monthly electricity bills after state regulators Wednesday passed along the effect of a recent federal appeals ruling against the Bonneville Power Administration.
Avista, Puget Sound Energy and Pacific Power & Light customers will see increases of between 9 and nearly 17 percent in their bills, effective today.
“We’re not happy about it at all,” said Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof, who said that Avista customers will see bills jump by about 9 percent, or $5.23 a month for Washington customers. “This is something that’s going to affect our most vulnerable customers.”
The increase applies to Avista’s Idaho customers as well, following similar approvals recently by Idaho regulators. Those customers will see bills go up by an average of $6.03 per month.
The increase approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission affects about 45 percent of electricity customers in Washington state. A similar decision was reached by Oregon’s utility regulator last month, affecting 75 percent of customers in that state. Rates in Oregon increased by 13 percent last Friday for PGE and PacifCorp customers.
Other utility customers affected are those of Idaho Power and Rocky Mountain Power Co. in Idaho and those of NorthWestern Energy in Montana.
The change does not affect customers of public utilities, like Seattle City Light, which make up about 55 percent of electricity customers in Washington.
The utilities commission has already joined other Northwest utility regulators to urge the U.S. Justice Department to allow BPA to seek reconsideration of the ruling that ultimately led to higher bills.
The Oregon Public Utility Commission also has asked Congress to provide financial relief to the more than 1 million customers affected by the change. Washington state is not planning to make the same request, UTC spokeswoman Marilyn Meehan said.
BPA is a federal agency that markets about 40 percent of the electricity consumed in the region and sells to about 140 utilities in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, most of them public utilities.
Ruling May 3 in a lawsuit filed by public utilities, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said BPA had previously overstepped its authority when it set an annual subsidy to reduce electricity rates for residential and small farm customers of the privately owned utilities.
BPA and its utility customers have long fought over the appropriate level of the subsidy, known as the “residential exchange” program.
The exchange, established by the Northwest Power Act in 1980, allows private utilities to swap higher-cost power they generate for lower-cost hydropower generated by BPA. The exchange usually comes in the form of a financial payment, not an actual power exchange, and customers see it as a credit on their monthly bills.