Specifically, residential customers using 700 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity would see their bills increase by 4.7 percent, or more than $4 a month, by 2018.
The residential bill impact includes a gradual increase in the fixed charge, currently $7.67, to $12 in 2017, and $18 in 2018. Alliant Energy's residential fixed charge has ranged from $5 to $8 since 1995.These electric cost increases are offset, the company said, in part by reductions in projected 2017 fuel costs, which are included in this filing.
Conversely, commercial customers' power rates would drop by 4 percent, with factories seeing a drop of 1.5% on average, spokesperson Annemarie Newman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
A residential natural gas customer using 772 therms/year would see an increase of $3.47/month, or 7.6 percent. The company did not provide the new rate structure for commercial natural gas customers.
The request to increase retail electric and natural gas base rates is Wisconsin Power & Light’s first since 2010. “Our request resulted from collaboration with the Citizens Utility Board and the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group and must be approved by the PSCW to become effective.”
The utility also has proposed several new pricing plans and options – among them:
The PSCW review is expected to be completed by year-end 2016. These rates, if approved, would become effective January 1, 2017, and extend through the end of 2018. Alliant Energy will file its 2018 electric fuel cost plan in 2017
