Arizonans' power bills rising

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Fair use for educational/research purposes only California's energy crunch to blame Arizonans' power bills rising

The Associated Press Weighing his options: Arnie Raasch, manager of the Caliente Casa del Sol Mobile Home Park in Florence, fears that he may have to cut back on park upgrades if electricity rates continue to increase.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHOENIX - There was a little something extra in this month's electric bill for Arnie Raasch, manager of the Caliente Casa del Sol Mobile Home Park in Florence.

Like a higher amount due.

But Raasch said it could have been worse - hundreds of times worse.

Electric rates for many of San Carlos Irrigation Project's (SCIP) 13,300 customers were originally projected to rise as much as 300 percent this month due to California's ongoing energy crisis and the resulting skyrocketing cost of buying energy on the open market.

The situation has some Arizona power companies scrambling to keep pace, since customer demand is growing as fast as the state's swelling population and another long, hot summer awaits.

The utility's residential customers - most of whom live in low-income areas - currently pay an average of $77 per month for electricity.

Many customers can expect to pay slightly more this month and next, according to officials with the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which oversees the 76-year-old federal project.

In March, a 28 percent rate hike is being considered.

That sounds ominous to Raasch, whose park has 1,400 residents at this time of year.

"Twenty-eight percent? That's still pretty steep," he said. "But if there were a 300 percent increase like they were talking about, I would have wound up paying about $110,000 in electricity bills for the year. Last year, I paid $32,000."

Raasch said he may be forced to cut back on park upgrades if electric rates continue to rise.

It's also bad news for the Gila River Indian Community, another SCIP customer.

"If rates go up significantly, our 2,500 residents will be impacted along with our hospital," said tribal spokesman Gary Bohnee, adding:

"We may have to look at a long-term option like providing a power source here on the reservation or partnering with an existing power source. The community wants to be in the driver's seat so there is some control over power availability and delivery."

Eighteen new power plants have been proposed around Arizona, with six nearing the construction phase.

But there's no plan to replace the aging San Carlos project, which supplies electricity to 3,000 square miles of rural Arizona, from the Gila River Indian Community west to Oracle and south to portions of Florence, Coolidge and Casa Grande.

It was created in 1924 to supply water and power to area farmers. The turbines at San Carlos Lake stopped working more than a decade ago, forcing the project to purchase its power on the open market.

"We're getting it now through the Western Area Power Administration," said Barry Welch, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' deputy western regional director. "Our contract for January was $308 per megawatt hour. A year ago, we were paying $30.

"If we passed the entire cost off to our customers, they would have seen rates jump extensively. But we had a reserve account (of power), and we've been using it, so our total bleeding isn't the total amount."

The project is not subject to state regulation or the same fixed rates as some of the state's largest power suppliers.

"The power generators make more money selling power to California. We have to compete with that," Welch said.

Since last month, California has been hit with power shortages and rolling brownouts. Utilities there have reported losses of $12 billion as they have been forced to buy additional power at expensive short-term prices they cannot pass on to customers under the state's 1996 electricity deregulation law.

http://www.azstarnet.com/star/today/10212nArizonapowerwoes.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), February 12, 2001


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