The state's largest electric utility, formerly known as Utah Power, wants to raise the monthly charge by 246 percent - from 98 cents to $3.40 - as part of its proposed $115 million rate increase that is awaiting PSC approval.

The company's critics contend that such an increase will burden those Utahns least able to pay. And they made their views known during public witness day at the PSC.

"For me that $2.42 is a pound of chicken breasts that I can use to fix five meals, a half pound of cheese or a carton of eggs," said Barbara Toomer of the Disabled Rights Action Committee. "The average citizen is being burdened by rising [energy, food and housing] costs. And we [the disabled] are not average citizens."

Rocky Mountain Power maintains that raising its customer service charge, which hasn't been increased for more than 20 years, is only fair. At 98 cents a month, the charge covers only a small portion of the company's cost of reading a customer's meters, issuing the customer a bill and providing other services, officials for the utility say.

Historically, Utah Power's largest customers have borne the brunt of recent rate increases that were implemented by the company raising the cost of the electricity it sells, Rocky Mountain Power spokesman Dave Eskelsen said earlier this week.

He said in requesting an increase in the customer charge the utility is trying to get closer to assigning the appropriate costs to each customers.

For some, though, the issue isn't about fairness but survival.

Gina Cornia of Utahns Against Hunger pointed out to commissioners that 14.8 percent of Utahns have a difficult time meeting their basic nutritional needs and 4.6 percent are experiencing hunger.

"The requested increase may seem modest, but I frequently talk to those who literally are counting their change to try and figure out how to feed their families," Cornia said.

Under the company's proposed rate structure plan, part of the pending $115 million rate increase will be achieved by raising its customer service charge.

Yet the Committee of Consumer Services is arguing that under that plan, Utahns who use relatively little electricity will see their rates on a percentage basis increase far more than those families who consume massive amounts of power.

The committee, which is charged with representing the interests of residential and small-business owners in the state, has agreed that Rocky Mountain Power should be able to raise its rates by $115 million, or about 10 percent. But it doesn't like the way the company wants to structure that rate increase.

Instead of raising the customer service charge, the committee wants the charge to remain unchanged. And it argued Rocky Mountain Power's plan sends the wrong price signal to those Utahns who use large amounts of electricity and that it won't encourage energy conservation.

The committee is proposing that rates be adjusted so Utah households using less than 1,000 kilowatts a month will see their bills increase slightly less than 10 percent, while those above that threshold will see their rates increase more.

Howard Geller, executive director of the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project in Denver, testified over a telephone hookup that the committee's proposal will do more to stimulate conservation than the company's.

What's next?

* The three PSC commissioners , Chairman Ric Campbell, Ted Boyer and Ron Allen, took the matter under advisement. Under state law they have until approximately the end of the year to act on the company's proposed $115 million rate increase and rule on how rates will be structured.