Rocky Mountain Power meeting upsets customers already frustrated by electric rate hikes

FROM WYOFILE: 

Rocky Mountain Power meeting upsets customers already frustrated by electric rate hikes

Wyoming utility regulators say they might schedule their own public meetings regarding the utility’s pending rate hikes.

By Dustin Bleizeffer, WyoFile.com

CASPER—Dozens of Rocky Mountain Power customers filed into a ballroom at the Ramkota Hotel on Tuesday afternoon with questions about why their electric bills have increased and why the monopoly utility is asking for yet another rate hike. 

But what they found was an “open-house” style scrum where company officials of various expertise stood with customers in clusters attempting to explain the complicated nature of electric utilities, rate regulations and the myriad driving forces behind the company’s series of rate hikes. 

Brenda Johnson and her friend tried to approach company officials but couldn’t gain a one-on-one audience with a Rocky Mountain Power representative amid the chaos.

“We couldn’t talk to anybody because they were all busy,” Johnson told WyoFile. Later, in the parking lot, Johnson quipped, “At least I got a cookie.”

Johnson and Rocky Mountain Power’s other 144,000 Wyoming customers saw their monthly electric bills jump by about 5.5% in January, and another 9.3% in July. In August, the company filed for another rate increase, this time a hike of 14.7%. State regulatory officials confirm the scale of the increases is historic, while customers say it feels like they’re being “gouged” for an essential service in which they have little control over.

“We’re on fixed incomes,” 79-year-old Casper resident and Cheyenne businessman Charles Mueller said, adding that his power bills continue to skyrocket while the amount of electricity he uses hasn’t changed in years.

Mueller said it doesn’t make sense in a state that exports the vast majority of electricity that’s generated within its borders, and where residential power consumption pales in comparison to industrial demand. Many others, including Johnson, suspect that — to the extent Rocky Mountain Power’s rising cost claims are legitimate — soaring operational costs are driven by the utility’s shift from coal and natural gas to more wind and solar energy.  

“We did not have these huge rate increases — we used to look at a percent-and-a-half,” Rep. Bill Allemand (R-Midwest) told Rocky Mountain Power President Dick Garlish while surrounded by customers and other company officials. “That’s when we were shoveling coal in power plants, and we were having [natural] gas going into power plants. Now we’re turning wind turbines and looking at solar farms, and now our energy is just skyrocketing.”

Company officials continue to testify that Rocky Mountain Power’s increasing use of wind and solar power prevents even higher rate increases.

Rising costs and liabilities

Rocky Mountain Power, Wyoming’s largest electric utility, is part of billionaire Warren Buffet’s PacifiCorp, which operates in six western states. In addition to Wyoming, the companies are also asking for significant rate increases in Oregon, Utah and Idaho.

Rocky Mountain Power has requested a “fuel cost adjustment” for the past two years because it paid more than it budgeted for coal, natural gas and power purchases — all subject to volatile market swings. That accounts for the one-time 9.3%, $86.4 million “adjustment” that was temporarily added to customer bills in July. The rate is subject to change when the Wyoming Public Service Commission weighs the evidence later this year.

According to the company, its request for a 14.7% hike — which would tap Wyoming ratepayers for an additional annual $123.5 million — is driven by investments in new renewable energy facilities, portions of two major new interstate power transmission lines and by a mounting wildfire liability crisis. Power lines and other electrical equipment have sparked several wildfires in the U.S. resulting in massive legal claims for property damage and loss of life.

PacifiCorp could end up paying billions of dollars in various settlements for its liability in 2020 wildfires in Oregon. Garlish has testified in Wyoming and Utah that the company’s rate increase requests in those states do not include any potential payouts or settlements in the case. However, insurance companies are hiking liability insurance rates across the entire utility industry amid hotter and drier conditions throughout the West due to human-caused climate change. Rocky Mountain Power’s insurance costs have risen 1,888% over the past five years, according to the company, and those costs can be passed on to ratepayers.

“Insurance companies have just said, ‘The utility business and the co-op business is inherently more risky than it used to be,'” Garlish said. “So when it comes to insurance, we’re raising the rates, we’re lowering the amount of coverage, and we’re doing that for everybody.”

Several states, including Wyoming, are considering limiting utilities’ exposure to wildfire tort settlements. Without such limits, according to industry officials, any utility could get sued out of business and throw entire rural economies into disarray. The Wyoming Legislature’s Minerals, Business and Economic Development Committee will consider a couple of measures in October to either limit wildfire settlements, or create a “wildfire mitigation account,” or both.

Mounting frustration

Meantime, Rocky Mountain Power’s customers in Wyoming say they can’t afford continually rising electrical bills on top of a rising cost of living. Several customers on Tuesday complained that electric utilities, in general, operate behind an opaque cloak of bureaucracy that’s difficult to understand and difficult to trust.

Rep. Allemand told Garlish he appreciates the essential service the utility provides in Wyoming, and for making itself available to answer questions. But, he added, Tuesday’s effort fell short.

“You guys are getting somewhat of a black eye for having a meeting like this instead of having a comment meeting where you guys talk and then take comments and you answer the questions,” Allemand told Garlish. “That’s what the people really want.”

Rocky Mountain Power will host another customer meeting Thursday in Rock Springs, from 2-4 p.m. for industrial customers, and 4-7 p.m. for residential and commercial customers. The meeting will take place at the Holiday Inn, 1675 Sunset Drive.

The Wyoming Public Service Commission, which will weigh the company’s rate hike proposals, may schedule its own public meeting on the matter, according to the agency.

WyoFile is an independent nonprofit news organization focused on Wyoming people, 

places and policy.

This story was posted on August 28, 2024.