WREA: No rate hike for residential, commercial customers

RBC I The White River Electric Association Board of Directors approved the 2014 Rate Schedule at its regularly scheduled November board meeting, and it was decided that there will not be an increase in residential power rates for the year.
In October, Tri-State Generation & Transmission notified White River Electric of a 2014 wholesale rate increase. White River Electric’s management and board reviewed the impact of the wholesale rate increase on the 2014 budget and the associated cost to serve each of its rate classes.
The board determined that through efficiencies the wholesale rate increase could be absorbed for specific rate classes.
As a result of these efforts, there will not be a 2014 rate increase for the residential, small commercial, large commercial, irrigation and street lighting rate classes.
The wholesale impact on the large power rate classes was too large to absorb, therefore the large power rate classes will be assessed an average of a 1.43 percent rate increase in 2014.
This rate increase is a direct pass through from Tri-State and is not a result of White River Electric’s internal costs.
Alan Michalewicz, WREA’s new general manager, stated, “White River can tighten its belt in an effort to absorb this wholesale rate increase for the smaller classes of customers and will strive to find opportunities for efficiencies for our larger rate classes going forward.”
Michalewicz further commented that “rates impact consumers differently and, unfortunately, White River can’t avoid passing through the wholesale increase to our larger rate classes.”
The White River Electric board and management will continue to work diligently to provide the members safe, reliable electricity with superior customer service at the most reasonable cost possible, he said.
The 2014 rate schedule will be mailed to the membership, posted on wrea.org and in the Rio Blanco Herald Times.
Please contact WREA’s General Manager, Alan Michalewicz, with additional questions or comments at 970-878-5041.