Two Rate Schedule Changes Effective January 1

January 2, 2012 – Two changes to the PUD’s rate schedules that took effect January 1 are expected to affect few customers.

Residential customers who exceed 5,000 kilowatt-hours of energy usage in a single month will have that incremental usage billed at 6.51 cents per kilowatt-hour, which is about a half a cent higher than the standard residential rate. The PUD hopes that the increased charge will encourage customers to invest in additional conservation measures and change behaviors to reduce energy use.

Additionally, some residential customers have second convenience meters providing service to shops, barns, well pumps, or other buildings. Those meters will be moved to the small general service rate schedule if electricity usage exceeds 750 kilowatt-hours in two out of three consecutive months.

“We are seeing more and more residential customers using their outbuildings for usages beyond the intent of the original rate schedule,” said PUD Finance Manager Rick Lugar. “It makes sense for them to pay the same rate as our other general service customers.”

The PUD’s rate schedules are designed to accommodate a wide variety of electricity usage habits and patterns that are common among our customers. In some instances, residential customers have usage habits that are vastly different from what the residential rate schedules were designed to accommodate. In those cases, moving the customer to a small general service rate or providing a second usage block will ensure that the PUD is equitably recovering costs from all customers.

For a free energy use evaluation, contact our Energy Experts at (503) 366-5470 or experts@crpud.org.