On March 19, 2024, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC) approved a multiparty settlement stipulation (Settlement) subject to conditions for PacifiCorp’s multi-year rate plan for electric service in Docket Nos. UE-230172 and UE-210852 (consolidated).
The Settlement provides for a two-year rate plan, as requested by PacifiCorp, and was PacifiCorp’s first general rate case following the enactment of the Washington multi-year rate plan statute and the WUTC’s guidance in Cascade Natural Gas Corporation’s 2021 general rate case, where the WUTC emphasized the importance of the core tenets of energy justice.
The Settlement was joined by PacifiCorp, the NW Energy Coalition, the Alliance of Western Energy Consumers, The Energy Project, and Walmart, Inc (collectively the Settling Parties). Sierra Club did not join the Settlement but did not oppose. The Public Counsel Unit of the Washington Attorney General’s Office (Public Counsel) objected to the Settlement.
The approved Settlement authorizes an electric revenue requirement of $13.7 million for rate year one, and an additional increase of $21 million in rate year two. A typical customer using 1,200 kilowatt-hours per month can expect to see an increase of $4.37 per month in rate year one (average monthly bill of $129.66) and an addition increase of $6.07 per month in rate year two ($135.73/month). The Settlement provides for an overall rate of return of 7.29 percent, with no specifics regarding capital structure or return on equity.
Additionally, the Settlement required all pro-forma capital additions for PacifiCorp’s ownership of Colstrip Unit 4 to be excluded from the revenue requirement, established a tracker for coal costs (excluding Net Power Costs), allowed for continued recovery of operations and maintenance and capital additions for PacifiCorp’s ownership of the Jim Brider coal plant, modified the earnings test for PacifiCorp’s decoupling mechanism, required PacifiCorp to collaborate with the Settling Parties on a methodology to develop an equity framework to evaluate in the next general rate case based on the tenets of equity developed by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory, required PacifiCorp to develop a distributed equity analysis for capital projects in Washington, required PacifiCorp to work with its Low-Income Advisory Group to develop enhancements to its Low-Income Bill Assistance Program and create an arrearage management plan, allowed for PacifiCorp to recover wildfire mitigation costs, established additional performance metrics, and increased the customer charge by $0.75 for single-family customers and decreased the customer charge by $1.00 for multi-family customers.
The WUTC placed significant attention to the issues of energy equity in the Settlement, and conditioned approval of the Settlement on PacifiCorp tracking the additional performance metrics – many of which were equity based – and investigating the costs of providing data at the census tract level on an expedited timeline.
Sanger Law, PC represented the NW Energy Coalition in the PacifiCorp general rate case.
NWEC is an alliance of over 100 environmental, civic, and human service organizations, utilities, and clean energy businesses in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and British Columbia. NWEC is committed to designing, promoting, and implementing clean, affordable, and equitable energy policy grounded in analytical expertise.
Disclaimer
These materials are intended to as informational and are not to be considered legal advice or legal opinion, nor do they create a lawyer-client relationship. Information included about previous case results does not assure a similar future result.
