No increase expected in electricity rates

At news time, there are reliable reports that the Barrow Administration will make good on its promise in respect of light bills. Word out of the P.U.C. is that electricity rates will not be increasing for now.

This past March B.E.L., citing skyrocketing oil prices, applied for a fifteen percent rate increase under its Threshold Event Review. When the P.U.C. denied the request, the utility went back to the drawing board and revised the number to thirteen point four percent or fifty cents per kilowatt hour as part of the Annual Review Proceedings. At the conclusion of the ARP, B.E.L. rejected the P.U.C.’s suggestion of forty-four point one cents and the matter landed in the lap of independent consultant Dr. Jonathon Lesser. In his report, Lesser concluded that the mean electricity rate should increase to forty-seven point seven cents per kilowatt hour. However, the P.U.C. is under no obligation to follow the expert’s recommendations.