MILFORD - Pike County Light & Power is seeking an increase of approximately 9.6 percent overall in its annual electric delivery revenues or about $1.2 million. If approved by the PAPUC pursuant to its normal review schedule, this increase would not go into effect until April 2009 and would be the first PCL&P electric base rate increase since 1993.

If this proposed filing is approved by the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission, the total electric bill for a typical residential electric customer using a monthly average of 660 kWh would increase by $15.90 per month, from $109.47 to $125.37, or a 14.5 percent increase from today’s bills.

“Electric system reliability improvements and customer service enhancements are the key drivers prompting PCL&P to file an electric base rate case with the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission”, parent company Orange and Rockland Utilities, based in New York, said, in a news release. “The proposed rates are necessary to provide sufficient operating revenues to meet operating expenses, taxes and fixed charges and provide a reasonable rate of return on PCL&P’s investment in electric property. The proposed rates also enable PCL&P to maintain its creditworthiness at a level sufficient to raise the capital required to properly perform its obligations to provide safe, adequate and proper service to its electric customers.”

 “No one likes a rate increase”, PCL&P Vice President – Customer Service James O’Brien said. “There’s no good time to propose one, and we recognize that fact of life. We’ve held the line on a delivery rate increase here for 15 years due in large part to our success in continuing to achieve increased productivity and greater operating efficiencies in our business. Now, we have reached the point where we require additional investments to continue to meet our customers’ needs.”

In addition, PCL&P is proposing an alternative three-year rate plan for its electric operations, which, if adopted, would establish rates for the three-year period ending March 31, 2012. While the percentage and dollar impacts for the Company’s three-year proposal currently are not available, the monthly bill impacts for customers would be lower under a three-year plan than a one-year plan. The Company expects that the percentage and dollar impacts associated with the Company’s three-year proposal will be fully developed through the Commission’s rate case process.

This rate filing only covers the cost of delivering electricity to PCL&P customers. The other two components that affect a customer’s monthly electric bill are: (1) the cost of the electricity itself which represents approximately 72 percent of a typical residential customer’s bill and is set by unregulated market activity, and (2) the amount of electricity the customer uses. Both of those components have grown substantially since 1993.  

Since PCL&P’s last rate increase in 1993, the typical residential customer’s monthly usage has increased 18 percent, from 559 kWh to 660 kWh. 

The company claims improvements already implemented by PCL&P include:

• Upgraded the electric system and those upgrades have substantially improved PCL&P service reliability results.
• Shortened the tree-trimming cycles. About one-third of all our outages are tree-related. More trimming will help and that will be done every three years, beginning at the end of this year.
• Opened a new customer service office in Milford

The improvements due to be implemented by PCL&P in the next 18 months include:

• Build a new supplemental circuit along Route 209 that creates a by-pass route for electricity should problems develop on the main circuit. That will help improve electric service and be ready for this summer.
• Begin capital–related tree-trimming project along Route 209.
• Implement a circuit maintenance and pole inspection program
• Purchase land for the proposed future Milford substation.
• Expand distribution automation program that would decrease the number, duration and scope of electric service outages.

Another driver of the rate increase request is PCL&P’s capital investment of $7.7 million since 1993. Most of that sum was invested in the construction of a new electric substation in Matamoras that enhanced service reliability for the entire PCL&P service territory.

Pike County Light & Power Company (PCL&P) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. (O&R), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, Inc.