Settlement provides more certainty for you to manage your energy costs over the next two years

Post by Anna Scarlett

Today we learned that the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) has approved our settlement agreement with several parties in the electric and natural gas general rate requests we filed back in April. If you’re an Avista natural gas or electric customer in Washington, the approval means you’ll see two adjustments to your electric and natural gas rates. The first will take effect Jan. 1, 2013 and the second on Jan. 1 of 2014.

As a reminder, we’ve agreed not to request additional general rate increases that would take effect before Jan. 1 of 2015. This doesn’t mean we wouldn’t adjust rates based on wholesale natural gas costs before then (remember, that’s a separate part of your bill). For more information about how we adjust those costs, read our Natural Gas Pricing 101 series.

But what it does mean is that you’ll have more certainty in your energy rates for the next two years, so you can better plan to manage your energy costs. And your energy prices will still be among the lowest in the nation.

The bottom line
As a result of the approval if you are an Avista electric customer, you’ll see two separate rate increases:

• Beginning Jan. 1, 2013, if you use an average of 989 kilowatt hours a month, you’ll see an increase of $1.20 per month, which equates to about 4 cents a day, for a revised bill of $78.69.

• Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, if you use an average of 989 kilowatt hours a month, you’ll see an additional increase of $1.60 per month, or about 5 cents a day, for a revised bill of $80.29.

Here’s how the changes, will affect you as a natural gas customer:

• Beginning Jan. 1, 2013, the first 70 therms of your bill will actually cost a little less. This means an average monthly bill for 68 therms will decrease by about 38 cents to $60.37. For every therm you use over 70, you‘ll see an increase of about 10 cents per month. So, if your usage is less than 70 therms a month, through energy efficiency efforts, for example, you will really see the benefit of this change.

• Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, if you use an average of 68 therms a month, you would see an increase of 57 cents a month, or about 2 cents a day, for a revised monthly bill of $60.94.