Liberty Utilities wants to raise rates by 17.34%

In a move to increase revenue by $13.571 million, Liberty Utilities filed an application Monday with the California Public Utilities Commission to raise rates to their 49,000 customers in the Lake Tahoe region by 17.34%.

The change would begin on January 1, 2016. Liberty Utilities said in a press release that the projected new residential rate of 16.73 cents per kwh (compared to the current 14.26 cents per kwh) is still equal or less than residential rates for neighboring electric utilities.

According to Liberty Utilities, the increase is necessary to continue their focus on delivering safe and reliable electric service to its customers. Components of the increase include vegetation management (trimming trees and branches from infrastructure that may cause outages), compliance with California’s requirements related to drought-related fire prevention along utility power lines, additional funding for the existing energy efficiency programs/incentives and funding to implement a new solar incentive program, as well as maintenance and upgrades to the existing electrical system.

Liberty Utilities is required to file a General Rate Case (GRC) with the the commission every three years. The last time they did resulted in a 4.97% increase in rates on January 1, 2013.

“While no one likes to see an increase in any of their bills, our customers have told us repeatedly over the years that reliability is paramount,” stated Michael Smart, President of Liberty Utilities-California. “Since acquiring the former Sierra Pacific Power California service territory in January 2011, we’ve made much needed improvements to our facilities and performed necessary maintenance on aging infrastructure that allows Liberty to provide better service in the long term. This GRC reflects the costs associated with those improvements.”

The design of the actual rates themselves (prices charged to the different customer classes) and the cost of fuel and purchased power and other energy-related costs (known as ECAC—Energy Cost Adjustment Clause) will be determined in Phase II of this application, expected to be filed in early June.