Wwp Program Offers More Energy Options Mops Ii Will Initially Raise Kilowatt-Hour Cost

Choice, at least initially, will cost Washington Water Power customers participating in a pilot program that allows them to decide what kind of electricity they want to buy.

More options for Power Service II or MOPS II starts July 1. Rates set so far will increase the cost per kilowatt-hour to 7,800 Deer Park, Hayden and Hayden Lake residents if they choose to abandon WWP’s traditional rates for those set in the open market.

They can also select wind power at 2 cents per kilowatt-hour above what they pay now or energy from burning wood at 1.37 cents per kilowatt-hour more.

Those prices do not include transmission, which represents a little less than half the cost of power.

MOPS II is one WWP response to the challenge of energy deregulation.

Other utilities are trying new ways to sell power.

Customers willing to commit to a one-year contract for power purchased on the open market will pay about 7 percent more for energy than they do now. If they use 1,000 kilowatt-hours per month their bill would increase $3.27 to $48.31.

A month-to-month rate will also be available, but that rate will not be known until July 1. But customers who want that option, or any other, must say so by June 20.

That unknown and others surrounding MOPS II caused some unease among the few who attended the public information session Monday night in Deer Park.

“We’re in no position to choose,” said Mike Burdette. “It’s by guess and by golly.”

He questioned whether the higher rates some of the options entail would simply fatten WWP profits.

“Where does all that money go?” he asked.

WWP senior rates analyst Bruce Folsom said the additional revenues are passed through to suppliers. In the case of wind power, for example, the company has contracted with PacifiCorp for energy from a new wind farm in Wyoming.

Program manager Denise Materne added that MOPS II is intended in part to put in customer hands the power to determine what resources WWP draws on when meeting their needs.

“The beauty of this program is you don’t have to choose if you don’t want to,” noted Folsom.

He said the company expected market rates, which are set at the New York Mercantile Exchange, to be lower than when they were designing MOPS II.

Although that is not the case now, he said, customers can monitor those markets using one of two toll-free lines and jump in when they see an opportunity to save money.

MOPS II provides a cap that limits customer risk to a rate about 15 percent more than the current rate, Folsom said. And if customers are uncomfortable with their MOPS II experience after one year, they can revert to a standard rate just 5 percent higher than the traditional rate when the program expires June 30, 2000.

“We’re not asking you to take any big risks here,” said Washington Utilities and Transportation Commissioner Bill Gillis.

He said state regulators approved the pilot to give customers choice even though they enjoy some of the cheapest rates in the country. Other states covet that cheap power, he said.

With a program like MOPS II, Gillis said, Washington officials can defend Northwest resources but keep the region open to innovation.

“It’s a unique Northwest approach,” he said.

An earlier version of the program, MOPS I, is already working in Odessa and Harrington where residents can choose to continue with WWP or buy slightly cheaper electricity from the Grant County Public Utility District. About one-quarter of WWP customers in those two communities have switched to service from Grant, Materne said.