Utah residents voice concerns over Rocky Mountain Power rate increase

On Wednesday, the Legislature questioned Rocky Mountain Power’s president regarding the energy company’s proposed 30% rate increase , which was announced in July.

“There is no doubt (that) there’s incredible upward pressure on rates,” RMP’s President Dick Garlish said in the public utilities, energy and technology interim committee meeting at the Capitol. “As a company, we are trying to find the balance of making sure that we are recovering the cost to be able to provide the essential service, because electricity is the backbone of our quality of life, and it is our engine of economic development, being reliable and being affordable.”

Rocky Mountain Power provides energy for Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Its sister company, Pacific Power, provides energy services for Oregon, Washington and California. With states like California and Oregon having faced wildfire damages in recent months, Rep. Carl Albrecht, R-Richfield, questioned Garlish on whether or not the increase in rates in Utah is being used as funding for other state’s natural disasters.

“I can assure you that this current case does not include any judgments, liabilities or settlement dollars,” but added that with insurance costs having gone up in the last five years, it’s “driving the insurance industry rates, availability of coverage and rates up for all utilities and all co-ops.” But, “to say our insurance went up because we had a fire in Oregon isn’t accurate,” he said.

Utahns are concerned about the increased rate

Since RMP’s proposed increased rate was announced, Rep. Judy Weeks Rohner, R-West Valley, said she’s received phone calls from multiple people in her district and surrounding areas accusing the energy company of turning off their electricity “intermittently.”

“Your rate increase has caused people to be concerned about their bills, especially in my area. I don’t know about the others, but in my area, they’re calling,” she added.

Garlish responded, “1,000% we are not turning people’s powers off because we’re having a rate increase.”

He added, “We’re not trying to punish our customers in any way possible. And on the rate impacts, you know, we get that. None of us enjoy having to make a rate case and ask for money, especially when we’re living in this environment where costs are just up generally and impacting different folks in different ways. We don’t take it lightly, but we have to recover some of those costs that we use to provide the service to keep going.”

If approved by the Public Service Commission, the initial phase of the increase would take effect on Feb. 23, 2025, resulting in an overall rise of 1.32% per kilowatt hour for Utah customers, bringing the price to 9.50 cents per kilowatt hour. The second phase would raise the price to 10.49 cents per kilowatt hour by Jan. 1, 2026.

The last subject discussed in the Legislature on Wednesday was the potential of Rocky Mountain Power separating itself from PacifiCorp, which Albrecht said would make sense for Utah from a policy perspective.

“There’s more and more interest in restructuring and what that looks like, driven by all of these factors, upward rate pressures, changes in policy,” Garlish said, adding that it would take around 20 months to figure out all the entanglements. Albrecht requested Rocky Mountain Power bring a report in November on what a separation with PacifiCorp will entail.

“We can do a report that really touches on what we have today, what the benefits and challenges are, and what an alternative might be,” Garlish added.