Dive Brief:
- Officials from Texas city of El Paso say an electric rate increase proposed by the region's utility is excessive, and have asked state regulators to reduce it by about $48 million, or 67%. The city also wants regulators to reject the utility's request to create a new rate class for solar customers and raise fixed charges on them.
- Over the summer, El Paso Electric filed a rate proposal with the Public Utility Commission of Texas that would raise rates for a typical customer by $8.41/month, or about $100 annually. Customers with rooftop solar panels would see their fixed monthly charge go from $5 to $15.
- The Las Cruces Sun-News reports that El Paso officials has asked regulators to limit the increase to $23.5 million, rather than the $71.5 million EPE had requested.
Dive Insight:
The city of El Paso is not happy with several proposals made by the region's main utility, and has filed documents with Texas regulators opposing creation of a new solar rate class as well as slashing the requested rate increase.
In addition, the city is asking regulators to leave the monthly residential charge unchanged at $5, instead of doubling it to $10 as El Paso Electric requested.
"I think they reduced this way too much," Tom Shockley, El Paso Electric's former CEO, told the Las Cruces Sun-News. "We feel like they are being very harsh on some of the variables we ... will be talking about as we go forward in this process."
Shockley retired this week as CEO, and has been replaced by El Paso Electric Company President Mary Kipp.
In making the case for its rate increase this summer, EPE noted that since 2009, it has invested approximately $1.3 billion in new assets to meet regional growth and improve grid reliability. These investments include work done at Montana Power Station generating units 1 and 2, the Eastside Operations Center and the Montana Power Station transmission lines.
The utility said it last raised its rates in Texas in 2010 and, prior to that increase, had not raised rates since 1994.
Under the utility's plan, residential customers’ monthly charge would have doubled and the new solar customer class’ monthly charge would go from $5 to $15. Solar customers would also have a demand charge, but would have a decreased volumetric rate, resulting in an overall average monthly bill increase of $12. El Paso's city council voted to unanimously reject the charge.