SRP approves 5.9% rate increase

Salt River Project customers will begin paying $5 to $8 more for their monthly bills in November - the 11th increase at the utility since 2002.

After considering an adjustment of as much as 7 percent, the utility's directors approved a 5.9 percent rate increase Monday to help recover natural gas and electricity expenses.

The increase is tied to the amount of electricity customers use, and on a percentage basis is larger in winter than summer, when demand is higher.

The average household customer using 960 kilowatt hours of electricity in a cool month will pay $4.70 more per month (a 5.9 percent increase).

In summer, when the average residential customer uses 1,610 kilowatt hours a month, the increase will be $7.89 (a 4.7 percent increase).

The residential averages provided by SRP include everything from apartments to large homes.

SRP officials said they received "a few" letters from people opposed to the increase among their 930,000 customers, but approved the measure with little discussion Monday.

No customers took the opportunity to speak or ask questions at the public meeting.

So far this year, SRP has paid $50.8 million more for natural gas for power plant fuel and electricity bought from other utilities than it has collected from customers, corporate pricing manager Aidan McSheffrey said.

Those expenses are a direct pass-through cost to customers, and the utility does not profit off those items, he said.

The increase will help the utility recovery those "undercollections" by next fall, when a new coal-fired generator in northern Arizona is expected to power up for the utility, he said.

The fourth unit being added to Springerville Generating Station, which is operated by Tucson Electric Power Co., should help mitigate fuel-price increases for the utility, which are mostly driven by higher natural-gas prices, McSheffrey said.