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Pacific Power is asking the state to grant a 9.1 percent increase in its base electricity rates for residential and business customers across Oregon.
PacifiCorp, which operates Pacific Power, filed the rate request April 2 with the Oregon Public Utility Commission. No hearing date has been set for the request and the commission has not acted on the proposal.
If approved, the rate increase could go into effect in February 2010.
In its 544-page brief that includes the request, Pacific Power said it needed the increase to maintain its rate of return on investment and “produce revenues necessary to sustain a stable, reliable and low-cost power supply, while preserving the company’s ability to attract capital for future investments in system infrastructure.”
Pacific Power provides electrical service to about 580,000 customers in Oregon and about 1.2 million customers in Washington, California, Idaho, Utah and Wyoming.
In its brief, the company said it needed to increase its rate of return on its investments from 6.5 percent to 11 percent. To do that, it would need an overall price increase of $92.1 million. That translates to a 9.1 percent increase in its base rate for its customers.
“Even with this requested rate increase, the company’s Oregon customers still benefit from some of the lowest electricity rates in the nation,” according to the company’s brief.
Pacific Power said its investment in new power plants increased its costs by about $500 million. The investments include new wind power facilities and the Lake Side and Chehalis natural gas plants.
Pacific Power said it needed the increase to maintain its rate of return on investment and “produce revenues necessary to sustain a stable, reliable, and low-cost power supply, while preserving the company’s ability to attract capital for future investments in system infrastructure.”--- So, customers should shoulder the costs of running the investments side of the company? I thought that was what they pay the upper management for, making the best decisions on how to invest wisely, not sticking it to customers when those decisions don't pan out.
Why should the little guy pick up the costs of the down-turn for the corporations in addition to their own personal losses?
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 06:35 AM
Lame, really lame. Why should I pay for their investments?
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 07:42 AM
PP&L is reacting to what the customers in the peoples republic want. To acquire the so called clean green power significant investments have to be made. Do all you greenies out there think that it comes free? Just wait until cap and trade goes through and see your electric bills go up by 50%.
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 09:03 AM
absolute malarky! a rate increase to keep executive salaries and bonuses intact, especially with a downturn that is hurting most taxpayers.
10%! is too much, please have a state investigation into this trickery, I promise you 10 years from now, we will read about this from an investigative reporter who will uncover tricks and scams in order to appease management and investors at the detriment to the common people.
SAM ADAMS...where are you to defend us and support us with this BS?
oh , i forgot, well, when your finished with the new intern in the mens lavatory, please help!
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 01:17 PM
Hey, this pales in comparison to the City of Portland getting 16% more for water after a 6% increase last year.
Inflation must be horrible.
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 02:23 PM
I guess I will trade in my new electric car. Using gas just became the cheaper alternative.
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 02:34 PM
Look what the investment in wind gets you: http://www.transmission.bpa.gov/business/operations/Wind/baltwg.aspx
With this thype of output, someone has to pay for the often idle infrastructure!
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 06:50 PM
These guys are the biggest utility scam artists on the west coast. Just google their name in relationship to lawsuits. Every complain - EVERY ONE - that has come before the Oregon PUC has defaulted in their favor. They have been forcing power spikes, averaging bills, and illegally manipulating the system. Without the PUC EVER acting as a checks and balance for PP&L - we're in trouble.
As for renewable energy? Check again. We ALREADY pay a tax in our current bill for this. Then, when we go to buy it, we have to pay extra above and beyond the current rate to adjust for the green tags PP&L has to buy. The do NOT buy green tags, in OR, as required and then transfer the savings to the customer at equal rates. They charge us the FULL production rate of coal AND the RETC rates. And, the added taxes - how do those support renewable energy projects when, almost EVERY one in the Pacific Northwest has had to be privately funded.
The Energy Trust of Oregon is a joke and designed solely to mess up the renewable energy industry. But, nobody watches over them, either. Welcome to the Pacific Northwest. Great if you're rich -and can afford to go broke slowly. With a bill "lower" than the rest of the nation? HAHAHAHA - try again. States without winter times do not pay what we do. PP&L's rates, by themselves, are as high or higher than ANYwhere else in the nation - we just have less taxes in Oregon.
Great - more governments - more lying. Just what we need.
(email verified)
Thu, Apr 09, 2009 at 03:22 PM
Donna, you wrote:
"As for renewable energy? Check again. We ALREADY pay a tax in our current bill for this. Then, when we go to buy it, we have to pay extra above and beyond the current rate to adjust for the green tags PP&L has to buy. The do NOT buy green tags, in OR, as required and then transfer the savings to the customer at equal rates."
I work for Pacific Power in the customer service department and I am very familiar with the charges billed to an Oregon residential customer.
There is no "tax" that you pay on your bill for renewable energy. None. Pacific Power (and all other investor owned utilities are required to purchase a certain percentage of "renewable energy" - which, by the way, does NOT include hydroelectric power in the definition unless the hydro project meets the definition of "low impact" which the majority of projects don't - and this percentage increases every year (right now it's in the low single-digits).
There are two line items on your Pacific Power bill relating to energy conservation and public purpose - these line items go towards funding the Energy Trust of Oregon programs. Yes, the Energy Trust does fund some renewable energy projects, but the money goes towards the installation of the projects (i.e. a company installing solar panels) and not the cost of the energy itself.
Pacific Power, like all other utilities, is required to sell power at the lowest possible rate. Pacific Power's rates are among the lowest in the nation, and are lower than PGE's or even many of the co-op and municipal power companies in the Pacific Northwest. (This data is readily available at http://www.puc.state.or.us ).
In fact, PGE is even charging a surcharge (not a tax) to install the new advanced electric meters. While Pacific Power is not installing those meters in Oregon, in the service territories where we are installing those meters (in Utah and in Wyoming) we have not applied for a rate increase to install those meters - we believe the cost of those meters will be recouped by savings that those meters will achieve (namely - less expense for meter readers).
As for your assertion that we don't buy green tags...we actually own and operate, and are building, our own wind farms in Eastern Oregon, Washington, Utah and Wyoming. Why would we need to buy green tags when we're actually building the plants that the green tags are meant to fund? Are you seriously asking my company to pay a third party (who demands a profit), so that we can receive funds from the green tag (now minus profit) to build? That seems like a wasteful idea to receive $1.00 in "green energy" revenues, buy a $1.00 "green tag" and get $0.80 back to build a power plant...
Regardless, by state law we're not permitted to profit on the sale of Blue Sky renewable energy. In fact all Blue Sky participants receive an annual report which shows revenues received and expenses, and if you participate in the Blue Sky program your enrollment is itemized separately from your regular electric charges.
While my employer is hardly perfect, and I can certainly think of ways that they could improve, your rant simply goes to show how uneducated you are about your own power bill. Please, call me or one of my co-workers. By the way, we're available 24 hours a day, even on weekends and holidays (even on Christmas) and you'll talk to a live human being, not a recording. Here's my phone number -- 1-888-221-7070.
(Of course, now you're probably going to complain that your rates are too high so that we can staff our phones 24 hours a day...and that the majority of our power outages are resolved within two hours...and that power outages in Portland in our service territory are actually quite infrequent...and we historically don't do a lot of advertising, or extra services that don't directly relate to supplying power, or have the best and greatest website, and we actually spend a lot of effort on telling people how to use LESS electricity - and pay us LESS money...)
One last comment...you're probably paying around 8-10 cents per kilowatthour for electricity. (Your monthly average kwh rate is even summarized on the right side of the bill, just underneath the bar graph.) Many residents of the U.S., especially to the south and far east, pay upwards of 15 cents per kwh. In Hawaii it's as high as 20 cents/kwh. No, we're not the lowest (McMinnville is the lowest, followed by Forest Grove - both served by municipal power providers) - we're actually in the middle of all power providers in Oregon, investor owned AND co-op and municipals and PUDs. While I'd like to keep you as a Pacific Power customer, you are welcome to move to a PGE served territory. At least several times a week I hear customers who tell me that they're sad to leave our territory because we have lower rates, we do a better job of keeping the power on, we respond to outages quickly, we take every call of power quality issues seriously, and we're available 24 hours a day with a live human being. As an employee, I don't get luxorious benefits or pay - decent, but hardly top-notch. I pay quite a bit of my medical insurance premium and I don't get a pension nor a huge 401(k) match. I get to work on weekends (even on Christmas Day) and frequently get the opportunity of mandatory overtime to help in the event of a major storm that has the potential to disrupt power. I don't get paid company retreats in the corporate jet (our company doesn't even own one). And when it comes to having to take action against customers who don't pay, our collection disconnect rate is actually going down despite more customers calling in with payment difficulties - we're actually helping our customers and setting up payment plans - and we don't charge interest to customers who do that.
(email verified)
Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 05:45 PM
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Re: Pacific Power seeks 9.1 percent rate increase
We got to have more money for our stockholders that are sufferring from this downturn like the rest of us. Whatever happened to a co-op in order to do away with this kind of corruption that we seen to tolerate??
"Israel"
(email verified)
Tue, Apr 07, 2009 at 03:26 AM