Major rate requests from Spokane, WA-based Avista Corp.’s natural gas/electric utility operations in the state and Idaho Power Co. are scheduled to kick off this month for the Idaho Public Utilities Commission in the mid part of the month. In the meantime, the state regulators last Thursday denied Avista’s request for a March 10 effective date for its proposed hikes of 24.1% for power and 9.2% for natural gas.

A pre-hearing conference is scheduled for March 16 for the Avista case, which included adjustments in power costs and monthly service charges that could lower the average increase for residential electricity customers to about 13.5%, the Idaho PUC said in announcing its hearing schedule.

Regulators said the utility has argued that the electric rate increase is needed to cover the combination of new generation, reduced wholesale revenues, increased natural gas costs, a decline in electric use and “record low-water conditions,” along with a series of “unprecedented” factors that drove the utility’s credit ratings below investment grade. On the gas side, Avista cited declining natural gas use, customer growth, and a general increase in expenses since the last gas rate increase 14 years ago.

Idaho regulators last fall agreed to extend for one more year a 19.4% surcharge added to Avista electric utility retail rates to help recover the company’s costs from the 2000-2001 energy crisis in the West.

For Idaho Power’s proposed 17.7% rate hike, the PUC has scheduled a series of five public hearings, beginning March 15 in Pocatello and Jerome, ID, and ending March 31 in Boise. The utility is seeking an added $85.5 million in revenues to meet growing customer demand and what the company is calling “significant system upgrades” over the past 11 years since the last rate hike in 1993.

In testimony filed last month, Idaho PUC staff proposed granting the utility $14.8 million in additional revenues, or a 3.06% increase.

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