Higher natural gas, power rates starting Monday
May 14, 2012, 3:24 PM | Updated: 3:42 pm
Puget Sound Energy crews from Galbraith Power in Seatac make repairs to a line during the January ice storm. (PSE Flickr)
(PSE Flickr)
If you’ve been thinking about conserving energy, now would
be a good time. Starting Monday, electricity and natural
gas will cost you more if you’re a customer of Puget Sound
Energy.
“The average P.S.E. residential electric customers
that would use about 1,000 kilowatt hours per month would
see their electricity increase by about $3.30 per month,”
said Marilyn Meehan, spokeswoman with the state Utilities
and Transportation Commission.
The average monthly residential natural gas increase
amounts to about $1.08 per month.
Meehan says P.S.E. originally sought overall rate
increases totalling $193 million for electricity and
natural gas. State regulators analyzed the request and
then reduced the amount of the increase to $76.7 million.
“The commission is allowing Puget Sound Energy to
raise electric rates by about $63 million and natural gas
rates by about $13 and a half million,” said Meehan.
Bellevue’s Puget Sound Energy is the state’s largest
private utility with about 1.1 million electricity
customers and more than 756,000 natural gas customers,
mostly in the Puget Sound region.
