Wwp Rates In Idaho Will Drop In January

Rates for most Idaho electricity customers of Washington Water Power Co. will drop 2.3 percent Jan. 1 as a surcharge imposed a year ago because of abnormally low streamflows expires.

The adjustment will trim $1.27 from the monthly bill of homeowners who use a typical amount of 1,145 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

Rates of former customers of Pacific Power & Light Co. will change because they were excluded from the surcharge as a condition for the service area’s acquisition by WWP.

They will be included in the next adjustment.

The surcharge is triggered when low streamflows deplete the Spokane utility’s hydropower generating capacity. When the costs of relying on more expensive energy from thermal generating plants reaches $2.2 million, WWP can request the surcharge from the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.

If streamflows are abundant, as they have been this year, fuel savings are accumulated until they reach $2.2 million, when a refund kicks in.

, DataTimes