RPU Board Approves Electric Rate Hike

Customers of Rochester Public Utilities will see a significant electric rate increase next year.

The RPU Board voted Tuesday to approve a 3.5-percent increase in the municipal utility’s overall general electric rates in 2015. The plan also calls for the rates to rise 1.7-percent in each of the following two years.

The overall rate increases include higher monthly residential customer charges.  They will rise by $1.50 next year and by another dollar a month in both 2016 and 2017.

The RPU Board also approved implementing a 12-month rolling average power cost adjustment.  It is a method used by most utilities pass through the fluctuations between the actual purchase power cost in the baseline used to set the base rates.  If those costs are higher, increase would be passed on to the customer as a separate billing line item, while lower purchase cost would be passed through as a credit on RPU monthly bills.

The Rochester City Council will act on the rate increase plan next week.