Rocky Mountain Power makes case for 30% rate increase
Aug 21, 2024, 6:34 PM | Updated: 6:55 pm
SALT LAKE CITY — An issue that could impact your budget was discussed during Wednesday’s special session of the Utah legislature. Several state lawmakers heard Rocky Mountain Power officials explain why they’re asking to raise rates by just over 30%.
Paying that much more for your power bill could be the reality if the request from Rocky Mountain Power gets approved.
“None of us enjoy having to make a case to ask for money where costs are just up generally, where it’s impacting different folks in different ways,” said Rocky Mountain Power President Dick Garlish.
Garlish made the case in a meeting Wednesday before the Utah Public Utilities, Energy, and Technology Interim Committee. A company spokesperson cited inflation as one of the reasons for the rate increase request.
“Part of that driver is net power costs, that includes fuel and system costs that are subject to inflationary pressures,” said Tiffany Erickson, Rocky Mountain Power communications director.
That reason is not sitting well with some customers, who told KSL TV Wednesday their bills are too high already. Brett Bawden of West Jordan showed his bill this month totaling $364.
“It always goes up in the summer, but I’ve never seen it go up quite this much,” Bawden said.
It’s forcing his family to make cuts they didn’t expect.
“It destroys your budget, you don’t have that in your budget,” Bawden said.
Budget cuts are what some members of Wednesday’s committee would like to see Rocky Mountain Power make instead of planning to pass higher costs onto more customers.
“I get it, I was in the utility business, Rocky Mountain has got inflationary factors hitting them from all sides, coal costs, costs of wires, poles and so forth, but they’ve got to learn to operate efficiently in this new generation,” Rep. Carl R. Albrecht, R—District 70 said.
If approved, Rocky Mountain Power expects the average cost increase to be $24 a month over two phases starting in January.
So where does it go from here?
The Utah Public Service Commission will either approve or deny the rate increase. The process typically takes anywhere from six to eight months.
