Why a utility rate case matters?

Designing Electric Rates That Are Good for Customers and the Planet

While many of us know that combating climate change will require more clean energy such as solar and wind, most people don’t know how well-designed electricity rates can help advance a clean energy future. Rates are simply the prices a utility charges its customers for electricity. Depending on how rates are designed they either can spur customers to make clean energy choices or can be a hurdle to our clean energy future, providing disincentives to powering our homes and cars with clean energy. For example, charging a lump sum no matter how much energy a customer uses removes incentives to save energy and gives customers less ability to lower bills by using less energy. If the Interior West is to advance our shared vision of clean energy innovations to reduce carbon pollution and provide reliable power, well-designed electricity rates are critical.

 

Guiding Principles for Fair Rates and Less Pollution

WRA is working to ensure that electricity rates are smart for our wallets, our environment, our health and our economy. New rate designs should:

• be easy to understand and provide customers the ability to control their electricity use to lower their bills if desired,

• set prices that reflect the cost of carbon pollution to our health, economy and environment,

• reward customers who use less energy or choose to use energy when more clean power is on the system,

• encourage large-scale clean energy projects (like wind farms) and customer-owned clean energy systems (like rooftop solar),

• indicate to electric vehicle owners when they can charge up with cleaner energy powering the system, and

• protect access to affordable electricity for low-income customers.

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Prcing design

• Limiting fixed fees so that most costs are in the per-kilowatt charges (volumetric rates). This means we each get charged mostly by the amount of energy we use, providing us opportunities to lower our bills by using less energy.

• Creating time-of-use rates that charge less for electricity used during off-peak periods, which is usually powered by clean energy sources. These types of rates create incentives for charging electric vehicles and doing other activities using electricity when there is cleaner energy available.

• Fair pricing for customers with rooftop solar installations so that they help pay the cost of maintaining the grid they still use and receive fair compensation for the clean energy they produce for others to use.

• Advancing community solar so low-income residents and others living in apartments or condominiums who don’t own their roof can economically benefit by subscribing to a solar garden