Rocky Mountain Power is seeking to increase Utah customers’ electrical costs by 4.48% — just eight months after state regulators approved a rate hike.
The company filed the request with Utah’s Public Service Commission on the day before Thanksgiving.
If the commission approves the increase, the average residential customer would pay another $3.70 a month on their electrical bill, starting next May, according to Rocky Mountain Power’s filing with the state. That’s on top of the rate hike of $4.31 per month for single-family households, and $3.31 per month for multi-family households, that the commission OK’d in April.
Officials for the utility say the increase, which they consider a surcharge and not a rate hike, would pay for a “Utah fire fund” approved by the Utah Legislature in 2024 — an insurance account Rocky Mountain Power could use to pay for wildfire damages in Utah.
If the new request is approved, the company said it will collect about $109 million from the surcharge each year, potentially for 10 years.
The fund, according to Rocky Mountain Power’s request, would supplement other insurance forms rather than replace them, and would only cover costs “beyond what a reasonable amount of insurance could cover” in a “catastrophic wildfire liability event.”
“Catastrophic wildfires in Utah and other parts of the west have created a serious operational threat to electric utilities,” said David Eskelsen, a spokesperson for Rocky Mountain Power. “The Utah legislation was designed to mitigate the financial consequences.”
The requested surcharge to build the fire fund — and the state law allowing it — came after Rocky Mountain Power faced a $115 million insurance rate increase in 2023 when its parent company, PacifiCorp, was found liable for potentially billions of dollars in damages from Oregon wildfires.
While Rocky Mountain Power argues the fund will help Utahns by allowing them to still provide power in the face of tumultuous financial obligations due to wildfires, others criticized Rocky Mountain for passing the cost to consumers.
Stan Holmes, the outreach coordinator for Utah Citizens Advocating Renewable Energy, said that by continuing to rely on coal to produce energy in Utah, Rocky Mountain Power is exacerbating the wildfire problem it’s asking consumers to pay for, by emitting chemicals that heighten the risk of wildfires.
“It’s all heading in the wrong direction,” he said. “Through our monthly utility bills, we’re paying to enable Rocky Mountain Power … to keep investing their time and their focus on fossil fuels.”
Eskelsen said the company’s use of coal is “a different issue altogether,” and has more to do with Utah’s energy policy than Rocky Mountain Power.
“Utility companies utilize generation assets,” he said. “We understand the problem of carbon dioxide emissions, and we have been working diligently and steadily to reduce our emissions.”
The process of switching to cleaner energy can’t happen overnight, Eskelsen added. “It’s absolutely essential that a utility have some dispatchable energy resources, and energy resources you can call on when in response specifically to customer demand as it fluctuates throughout the day,” he said. “You can’t replace those coal-plant capacities easily.”
The Public Service Commission will take its first look at Rocky Mountain Power’s surcharge request at a scheduling conference Thursday evening.