Electric rates set to go up
A June 1 rate increase for Flathead
Electric Cooperative members will bump up most area residential
electricity bills by about $3.55 a month.
The 3.5 percent residential rate
increase comes on the heels of a 7.5 percent increase in wholesale
power rates from Bonneville Power Administration that took effect
in October 2010.
Flathead Electric’s board of trustees
opted to wait until this summer to raise rates instead of imposing
an increase at the beginning of the winter heating season, Flathead
Electric General Manager Ken Sugden said.
Because BPA is expected to raise
wholesale rates again in October 2011 by 10 to 11 percent,
cooperative members likely will see rate increases of 3.5 percent
each June for the next few years, then 3 percent annual increases
after that for several years.
“The farther out the forecast, the
fuzzier it gets,” Sugden said. “We’re trying to level out the
increases.”
The residential single-phase basic
charge — which accounts for about 84 percent of all co-op services
— will jump from $18.91 to $20.78 when the rate increase takes
effect in June.
The cost per kilowatt-hour also will
increase slightly. Those rates are tiered, with those using 600 or
fewer kilowatt-hours per month paying the least.
A Flathead Electric residential member
using 1,000 kwh per month will pay a total monthly bill of $76.75
under the new rate schedule.
That compares to $92.60 a month for
customers of Missoula Electric Cooperative and $85.40 with Lincoln
Electric for the same monthly usage.
The most expensive regional power is at
Beartooth Electric based in Red Lodge, where members pay $140.31 a
month per 1,000 kwh.
Flathead Electric commercial members
also will see a minimal increase in basic service charges.
The new rate schedule was outlined at
Flathead Electric’s annual meeting on Saturday, an event that drew
a crowd of about 1,000 people.
The co-op board decided last November
to continue getting power from BPA through 2014 and has to decide
by Sept. 30 this year whether the co-op will have BPA provide
incremental power for the five years beyond its three-year
commitment, Sugden said.
Last year the board considered a
proposal to join the Portland-based Pacific Northwest Generative
Cooperative and also discussed North Dakota-based Basin Electric
Power Cooperative as an option for finding new sources of low-cost
power. Both of those options now are “off the table,” Sugden
said.
“There are groups of utilities looking
at banding together,” he said. “The board now needs to decide if
there is another source” for low-cost power.
Co-op trustees have been exploring
several options to meet members’ power needs after BPA in October
2011 caps the amount of low-cost power it provides to Flathead
Electric.
At the present time, all power used by
the co-op comes from BPA, except for a small amount from its
landfill gas project, Sugden said.
The BPA cap could be around 169
megawatts, while the landfill gas project generates about half a
megawatt, he said. Flathead Electric’s projected growth rate is
about two to three additional megawatts annually.
Options for additional power could
include purchasing power on the open market or supporting local
power projects such as the city of Whitefish’s hydroelectric
project, or reducing the load further with additional conservation
measures.