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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Rocky Mountain Power Rate Increases & Energy Savings

Bobbie Bicknell Coray, Reporter
Rich Civic Times

RANDOLPH, Utah.  May 7, 2014.  George Humbert of Rocky Mountain Power, told the county commissioners the company has been bought by Berkshsire Hathaway.  The company has also acquired other energy companies so they are growing. Over 25% of the energy is renewable, water, wind or solar.
In Utah there are 822,000 customers and there are 2000 employees. They have 21,000 miles of line of which 89% is residential. The upgrades increased the capacity of the Rich County area which also uses some of the wind energy produced nearby.   There is a rate case pending for a 4% rate increase effective in September because they have had millions in power plant improvements this year.   They have been able to bring down some of the costs by refinancing at better interest rates.  Reliability is as good as possible, the usual wind and lightning but sometimes odd things happen like a bear climbing a pole or a raccoon. They state that frequency of outages is less than in 2007.  On average, in the west, Rocky Mountain West is the least expensive due to coal and water usage.  Alternative energy is more expensive.  If the plant in Kemmer, Wyoming goes to natural gas it will be more expensive to run, but they are looking at solving the environmental problems of coal fueled plants even though Utah coal is cleaner than the coal used on the east coast.
Surveys are showing high customer satisfaction.  Rocky Mountain Power gets a small budget, $8900, to contribute to our area.  They have funded such things as the Raspberry day Rodeo, Senior Center, and Christmas Lighting.  In 2014 they donated another $10,000 for ball park lights in Randolph and the fishing pond in Garden City.  They also have a grant foundation, which gives grants to health, welfare,and education.
An energy efficiency program helps with community buildings with financial incentives for the county to reduce electrical usage.
They have been reducing carbon emmissions.  The real culprit is not industrial but cars and wood burning stoves in Utah. They have hydro plants, geothermal plants, wind power and the Blue Sky program which customers can donate funding for alternative energies.   A program for solar panels in Wellsville is being built.  They are going to spend $165 million in plant emission improvements.
Customer generated power that goes back into the system is reimbursed.  However since the solar power does not come at peak usage times it is sometimes not used but they have costs.  They would like a customer service charge of $4.25 a month for those customers who do use the network. 

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