CUB Reaches Settlement in Avista Rate Case: Minimizes Impact to Customers
Posted on August 16, 2017 by Mike Goetz
Tags, Energy
Avista Utilities is one of the six investor-owned electric and natural gas utilities that CUB helps oversee and regulate before the Oregon Public Utility Commission (OPUC). While the utility serves both electric and natural gas customers in eastern Washington and northern Idaho from its Spokane, WA headquarters, it only serves natural gas customers in Oregon. The Company’s Oregon service territory covers the area surrounding La Grande in the east, and the areas around Roseburg, Medford, and Klamath Falls in southern Oregon.
A long and stakeholder-intensive litigation process began with Avista filing a request for a general rate increase on November 11, 2016. CUB—along with the Northwest Industrial Gas Users, and OPUC Staff—has come to settlement terms to bring the rate case to a close in recent months. In its initial filing, the Company requested an increase in overall base retail rates of $8,539,000 to be levied on its Oregon customers. Parties came to terms earlier this summer, and filed Joint Testimony In Support of the Settlement Stipulation on June 29, 2017. CUB challenged several pieces of what the Company considered the main drivers for its rate increase request—chiefly, capital additions to the Company’s distribution infrastructure and general business expenses such as increased operating costs.
While the Company’s initial rate increase request was north of $8.5 million, that number was decreased to $3,500,000 after CUB and other parties advocated for $5,039,000 in total adjustments and disallowances. CUB believes that settling at this number protects Avista’s Oregon residential ratepayers from an unjust and unreasonable rate increase, and found the settlement package as a whole to be in the public interest. CUB evaluated Avista’s proposed capital spending on a project-by-project basis, and worked diligently to appropriately reduce these capital spending levels.
Another important adjustment was to the Company’s meter data management investment. Meter data management enables utilities to store and manage vast quantities of data that are collected from smart meters installed in residences. However, the meter data management system is solely associated with the smart meters of Avista’s non-Oregon electric operations. Including these costs to be passed through to its gas-only Oregon customers was patently inappropriate.
Stay tuned for more regulatory updates from CUB, as we work to advance a fair, affordable, reliable, and clean utility system here in the great state of Oregon.
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08/16/17 | 0 Comments | CUB Reaches Settlement in Avista Rate Case: Minimizes Impact to Customers