Rocky Mountain Power is asking regulators for permission to raise rates by an average of 5.3 percent starting in January 2015. That would translate to an extra $4.50 a month for average residential customers. Company spokesman Jeff Hymas says the rate increase is necessary for a number of reasons, but mostly because of recent infrastructure investments totaling over $2 billion. Those include projects in Wyoming and out of state, but Wyoming’s growing electricity use factors into how much it has to pay.
“While that’s a good indicator of economic growth, as more businesses are coming into Wyoming or expanding their operations in Wyoming, it also means that a larger portion of these system costs that are shared among the six states, are allocated to Wyoming,” Hymas says.
The request comes on the heels of several larger rate increase requests in 2011 and 2012. It will need to be approved by the Wyoming Public Service Commission before going into effect.