Juneau residents will see a 3.86 percent increase in their electric bills starting Nov. 23.<\/p>\n
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which governs utility rates, made the announcement Monday. The increase is a temporary one while the commission investigates a request by Alaska Electric Light and Power to raise rates by 8.1 percent.<\/p>\n
The investigation is expected to take until December 2017. At that time, the commission could approve the full request, it could approve a smaller rate increase, or it could declare the 3.86 percent increase too high and mandate a refund for AEL&P customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is normal; this is expected of every utility,\u201d said AEL&P Vice President Debbie Driscoll.<\/p>\n
Plans for the rate increase were announced earlier this year, and the commission\u2019s announcement is not unexpected. Analyzing whether a rate increase is fair requires detailed investigation, and under state statute, commission staff have 450 days to investigate.<\/p>\n
According to documents filed by AEL&P in support of the increase, the company is \u201cunder-recovering its revenue requirement\u201d by $5.7 million per year.<\/p>\n
Driscoll said by phone that \u201cwe basically have a revenue deficiency based on the $50 million in capital investments we\u2019ve made over the past six years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those investments include new transmission and line upgrades, pole replacements and substation upgrades. They also include a new backup diesel power plant on Industrial Boulevard. That plant will be commissioned by midmonth.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost companies just adjust their rates year after year after year, and we don\u2019t do that,\u201d Driscoll said.<\/p>\n
The rate increase is the first in six years and the first since AEL&P was purchased by Washington-based Avista.<\/p>\n
Under the proposed rate increase, Greens Creek Mine will pay a steep increase, generating $2.9 million per year. The rest of the amount will be raised by an 8.1 percent \u201cacross-the-board increase to energy, demand, and customer charges.\u201d<\/p>\n
If approved in full, that 8.1 percent increase would raise AEL&P\u2019s \u201creturn on equity\u201d or profit by $1.1 million per year.<\/p>\n
Driscoll said AEL&P has traditionally reinvested the vast majority of its profits into the company. She was not able to speculate about whether Avista will do the same.<\/p>\n
To follow the commission on the issue, visit rca.alaska.gov and search for matter number U-16-086.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter James Brooks at 523-2258 or james.k.brooks@juneauempire.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Juneau residents will see a 3.86 percent increase in their electric bills starting Nov. 23. The Regulatory Commission of Alaska, which governs utility rates, made the announcement Monday. The increase is a temporary one while the commission investigates a request by Alaska Electric Light and Power to raise rates by 8.1 percent. The investigation is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-18488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18488\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18488"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=18488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}