Rocky Mountain Power backs off of huge rate increase proposal

Rocky Mountain Power has bowed to public and official pressure and reduced its proposed rate hike made in June. In its revised rate increase application, the utility lowered its proposed hike from 30.5 percent to 18.1 percent.

The company said it is revising its request to “further mitigate the customer impacts of the general rate case,” it said in its application, referring to its initial rate increase proposal.

In the new proposal, rates would only go through the first increase phase initially filed by Rocky Mountain Power. The new schedule presented by the company would take residential rates from 10.96 cents per kilowatt-hour to 12.94 cents per kilowatt-hour, effective on Feb. 23, 2025. The second installment, scheduled for January 2026 that would have taken the rate to 14.31 cents per kWh, wouldn’t go into effect.

The change would represent a $14.28 monthly increase for the average Utah household, versus the original full two-phase proposal of $24.14 a month.

“The company has heard the concerns of its customers regarding the requested increase in this case combined with other cost pressures and continued to review ways of further mitigating the impact of the requested increase on customers,” the new application reads.

Officials from Utah Clean Energy, a nonprofit that advocates to advance clean energy technologies, said they are still reviewing the details, but the rate hike adjustment should be “welcome news for Utah ratepayers at least for the short-term.”

“However, most of the remaining proposed 18 percent increase is still tied to rising fossil fuel costs and PacifiCorp’s insurance premiums increasing due to wildfires, so we are still at risk for more rate spikes in the future,” Logan Mitchell, climate scientist and energy analyst, said in a statement. “This underlines the need to add more zero fuel cost energy like wind, solar, and geothermal to protect customers from rising and volatile fuel prices.”

Rocky Mountain Power had cited increased costs of fuel and wholesale power, in addition to ongoing new electric transmission and generation projects as the principal causes for the hike.

Rocky Mountain Power’s initial rate hike request was met with a great deal of opposition from ratepayers and government officials, including Gov. Spencer Cox, who said, “I will do everything I can to make sure a rate increase of that magnitude never sees the light of day.”