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January 11, 2010 in News
Avista offers to drop a surcharge
Avista Corp. plans to drop a monthly surcharge paid by its 232,000 Eastern Washington electric customers that dates to the 2001 West Coast energy crisis.
The 7 percent surcharge costs $5.35 per month for a household using an average of 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. In a Monday filing, the Spokane-based utility asked state regulators for permission to drop the surcharge by Feb. 12. If the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission approves the request as expected, the average residential customer’s monthly electric bill would drop from $77.14 to $71.79.
Commercial customers would see a corresponding decrease in their monthly bills.
In 2001, energy prices soared as result of two factors: A drought that reduced the Northwest’s hydropower generation and market manipulation by Enron and other energy traders. Avista and other utilities that bought wholesale electricity on the spot market got stuck with exorbitant price hikes.
To help Avista recover its wholesale energy costs, WUTC allowed the utility to add a 25 percent surcharge to customers’ monthly electric bills, said Mike Parvinen, the WUTC’s assistant director for energy. Part of the surcharge was later rolled into the utility’s base electrical rates, but it never completely went away. Avista was allowed to continue collecting a lower surcharge through later droughts and hikes in wholesale natural gas prices, Parvinen said.
Since Avista uses gas-fired turbines to produce some of its electricity, natural gas prices also affect the cost of electricity.
Now, hydro conditions have returned to near normal and wholesale natural gas rates have dropped, said Kelly Norwood, Avista’s vice president of state and federal regulation.
“We are pleased to be able to eliminate the…surcharge and reduce rates for our customers during this heating season,” he said in a prepared statement.
The surcharge is separate from Avista’s base rates for electricity and natural gas, which went up on Jan. 1 for the utility’s Eastern Washington customers. As a result of the base rate hike, a typical household is paying about $2 more per month for electricity. Dropping the $5.35 per surcharge would lead to a net saving of nearly $3 per bill.
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twobit on January 11 at 7:33 p.m.
why do i pay for a meter fee of 6 bucks or what ever i payed for that meter already what a fraud plus other fee meter could be wireless and no cost once bought no meter readers and they dont read mine 6 months of the year to much snow
but i get charged for reading it lol
WayFedUp2 on January 12 at 4:59 a.m.
They ‘played’ stock market, and got screwed? So stick it to the customers. That is pure wrong. American working people lost their butts on their 401’s due to all of the lying and stealing going on with the financial industry? Can we charge Avista, or anyone we chose to get our money back? How about stop ‘playing’ the market, cut your fat cat salaries and bonuses, and be fair for a change. Need to break up this big fat hog of a monopoly!!!!!!!!!
greyhound2 on January 12 at 7:50 a.m.
The “temporary” surcharge only lasted for 10 years, what a suprise!
Dan_at_Avista on January 12 at 8:13 a.m.
two bit: The monthly fee (called a Basic Fee or Basic Charge) you pay isn’t just for your meter, or to have it read, its your guarantee of service and a natural part of being connected a utility service. Of course, I don’t know anything about your account, but rest assured your meter is read on a regular basis (that’s how we bill you) and you can see that on your statements. I wrote a blog post about meter reading last summer that might be interesting to you: http://www.avistautilities.com/community/blog/archive/2009/07/27/Blog_07-27-2009-2.aspx
D Walker: There is a difference between “spot market” and “stock market.” If the ERM, noted in this article were being used to recover bad investments or the like, you’d certainly have every right to be upset. That’s just not the case. We’re required to deliver energy to our customers on demand. You use it, we provide it. There were times in the past that we had to buy extra power on the “spot” market to keep the lights on. The ERM recovered those costs. We’ve now requested to remove that charge from your bill as of Feb. 12.
You can e-mail me with questions: Conversation@avistautilities.com
-Dan
twobit on January 12 at 10:05 a.m.
Dan their is over a hundred meters not read from Oct to may every year in loon lake the park is closed but we still get charged the 6 bucks even if their is no use the privileged to me is getting a paper bill every month i spend more on meter fee then i do electric for the year
Dan_at_Avista on January 12 at 11:11 a.m.
two bit: Thanks for the extra info. Seems like you’ve got a little different situation than most of our customers. You’re right, we can’t access a location if its closed off to us (park closed). The Basic Charge/Fee applies even if you don’t have any use - this enables you or any customer to use energy at their desire. Here’s a good example of why the basic charge exists: if a tree fell on the line that powers your neighborhood, repairs must be paid for. We don’t charge the neighorhoood directly, it comes out of our rates and fees, such as the Basic Charge. You’re getting consistency of service and it’ll be ready when you are.
-Dan