Pacific Power bills to drop this fall

The Oregon Public Utility Commission on Tuesday approved PacifiCorp’s proposed rate decreases that will trim the typical utility customer’s bill by just over 3 percent, starting next week.

The PUC approved revisions to the residential exchange program (REP) associated with the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act, to be effective October 1. The REP credits provide PacifiCorp customers benefits from the
low-cost federal system resources.

The tariff filing nearly doubles the size of the current REP credit. For residential customers, applicable for the first 1,000 kWh of use, the credit changes from $0.0057/kilowatt hour to $0.01039/kWh. A typical residential customer using 900 KWh a month will see a monthly rate reduction of $4.22,s an overall decrease of 3.1 percent.

The proposed new two-year rate includes paying off the outstanding balance currently owed to PacifiCorp by residential customers for excess REP credits provided to customers during the last few years.