From the NEWS-REVIEW of Roseburg OR, Sunday 7 Nov 99:

PACIFIC POWER FILES WITH PUC FOR RATE INCREASE

Electric Utility: Company wants an 8.5 percent hike by the middle of next year and another 3.4 percent boost in summer 2001

PORTLAND (AP) -- Pacific Power filed an application with the Oregon Public Utility Commission Friday for a rate increase.

The company wants an 8.5 percent rate hike in mid-2000 and another 3.4 percent boost effective july 1, 2000. The company contends after both increases are in place and after adjusting for inflation, Pacific Power rates will be at least 25 percent lower than they were in 1989 and among the lowest in the United States.

About a third of the company's customers are in Oregon. The utility also has filed for rate increases in Utah and Wyoming and expects to file in Washington.

Pacific Power says it has invested more than $1.7 billion in system-wide improvements over the past three years. (Y2K improvements?)

For residential cusstomers using 500 kilowatt-hours of energy a month, the monthly increase would be about $4.76.

The citizens Utility Board of Oregon urged the request be rejected, and contended Friday that the increase is actually 17.8 percent and said it is the largest made by any Oregon power company in the past decade.

It said the utility's problem was not low rates but poor management and that Pacific Power already charges more than any utility in the Pacific Northwest.

(NOTE: Pacific Power is currently negotiating with Scottish Power, which hopes to buy the utility. Ominous news for consumers...)

-- Anonymous, November 07, 1999

Answers

Given the structure of the ratemaking process at a state level, I'm sure the reasons for the rate increase request will come out at any public hearings. That being said, this particular utility would not be the first that has requested rate increases to cover Y2k expenses. I recall reading about various utilities in at least Iowa and Wisconsin having requested rate increases explicitly for this purpose.

-- Anonymous, November 09, 1999