Wwp Gas, Electric Bills Will Increase

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission Friday approved a rate increase for Washington Water Power gas and electric customers.

The 1.55 percent increase for electric power and .6 percent increase for natural gas rates will be spread over two years, the commission said.

The rate hikes take effect immediately. Gas customer bills will rise about $2.70 a month. The average electric customer will see a $1.30 increase a month, but if they don’t heat water or their homes with electricity the increase will be about 40 cents a month.

The rate hikes will raise about $5 million for WWP’s demand-side management energy conservation programs. Those programs will save an estimated 5.7 megawatts of electrical capacity.

The rate increase is designed to prevent future rate shock from those programs. Typically, utilities can let the cost of running conservation programs add up and assess the costs to ratepayers in a lump sum, the commission said.

By having this smaller increase now, it prevents the shock of a much higher rate increase later, the commission said.