PSE just filed their general rate case requesting a 17% increase over two years, but the bigger story is their proposal to completely eliminate seasonal rate differentials and move to year-round time-of-use pricing for all commercial customers above 50kW. They're also proposing a new "grid modernization" rider that would add $4.50 per month to every account. This seems like a major shift away from traditional Pacific Northwest rate structures. Anyone else seeing similar proposals from their utilities?
Puget Sound Energy proposing massive rate restructure
Janet that's a significant change for PSE. The elimination of seasonal differentials is interesting - traditionally Pacific Northwest utilities have used summer/winter rate differences to reflect hydro availability patterns. Moving to year-round TOU suggests they're seeing different load and resource patterns, probably driven by increasing renewables penetration. The grid modernization rider sounds like cost recovery for smart grid investments. What's the timeline for PSC hearings?
The PSE case is getting attention here in Tennessee too since we're seeing similar grid modernization investments. MLGW is considering a comparable smart grid rider to recover AMI deployment costs. The year-round TOU approach makes sense if they're dealing with more solar integration and changed peak patterns. Hearings are supposed to start in May according to the Washington UTC website. This could set precedent for other western utilities.