Alaska Electric Light and Power is expecting a cost of power adjustment credit for its customers starting as early as October 1.
AEL&P spokesperson Debbie Ferreira said customers could see a $0.007963 credit per kilowatt-hour used. A household that uses 1,000 Kwh a month would save $7.96 on its monthly bill. The cost reduction continues through December.
“Most often our COPA is a credit,” Ferreira said. “If it isn’t a credit it is typically because a lot of [diesel] fuel was used.”
The utility kept maintenance costs and diesel fuel use below what was expected, Ferreira. Also, plenty of rain allowed sale of the extra power generated at the utility’s hydroelectric facilities to Juneau’s interruptible and duel fuel customers.
Princess Cruises and Greens Creek mine can buy surplus electricity to offset onsite generation. While the University of Alaska Southeast and the federal building have both electric and oil boilers.
“When we have surplus energy, we sell,” Ferreira said, “but when we need that energy, we can shut it off immediately.”
This is not an option for communities like Ketchikan that don’t have interruptible customers.
“So when it pours rain like this they have to spill it,” Ferreira said.
AEL&P files a COPA request with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska every quarter.
AEL&P customers saw an average COPA increase of $3.75 on their first three monthly bills of 2012 due to diesel generator use during an unplanned power outage in Nov. 2011.
• Contact reporter Russell Stigall at 523-2276 or at russell.stigall@juneauempire.com.
Comments (13)
Add commentSorry, no deal
$7.96 in exchange for the crappy, rainy summer we had?
No thanks. You can have your 8 bucks. Just give me my summer back.
In order to be a customer of
In order to be a customer of AELP, you must pay a customer charge of $8.88. I kid you not, look at your bill. This doesn't even cover that charge, let alone your actual bill.
I haven't seen an actual bill decrease since 2001. ... anyone else?
I get a better kickback
At fred's and costco. What is this, a percent and a half for the average residence?
Sync, my bill was $20 lower
Sync, my bill was $20 lower last month. Because I spent 3 weeks on vacation.
The fuel guys haven't stopped by to top off my 600 gallon tank since mid-March. Honestly, I'm a lot more concerned about that bill than a few bucks on the AEL&P bill. Probably looking at a couple grand there.
COPA
That means that AEL&P is giving us back some of the 25% increase that they got this year. This is probably to appease so we cannot be so concerned about the next rate increase that they ask the RCA for.
If you want to prevent rates from going up...
Conserve. When Lake Dorothy went online our rates went up to cover the project. Lake Dorothy Phase II will result in another rate increase but AELP hopes that they won't have to develop it for 20+ years, but that will only be determined by "our" collective use of electricity.
IF people do not conserve and people switch to electricity for heating then AELP may be forced to develop Lake Dorothy Phase II in 2-4 years.
The public needs to be most concerned when new large public buildings get developed (or converted) with electric heating systems which consume massive amounts of electricity... new pool, new ice rink, new school, airport addition, etc. When the city develops new facilities the public needs to pay attention to make sure that they are not subsidizing the city's heating bill when they install electric boilers/heat pumps.
Sobie2
That is reverse to reality. When usage goes down, rates go up. They don't want you to use less because they'll make less even if they sell it to the mine. Greens Creek pays a lower rate than we do.
downtowndude
downtowndude,
You are lucky enough to love in a place with an oil heat option. My place, 100% electric. This floats the electric bill cost during winter between $450 - $600 per month at 65F.
Thanks to no small part of our Avalanche charges. BTW AELP, you need to fix the bill to show this 20-year charge you are charging us instead of lumping it into the normal line items.
New folks to town may get the wrong idea that our electric prices are normally this high.
Cheese Russell
You're a better reporter than to just use a press release. Look at the comment -- you could have talked to some customers.
AEL&P wants usage to go down
But it's highly unlikely it will happen.
Sobie2, I agree. Lake Dorothy phase 2 is only necessary once Juneau's loading reaches capacity of phase 1. We can conserve energy and delay the upgrade. I don't mind municipal upgrades to electrical heat, however, once the cost is beneficial. I'm not sure the efficiency of oil burners is at breakeven just yet. The cost of installation is burdensome, not to mention oil boilers are necessary for backup and are installed anyway in most municipal buildings.
Toyo stoves, pellet stoves, efficient wood stoves, etc. are great alternatives today to electric heat, not to mention they are strong backup sources and help to delay phase 2 of Dorothy. We will see another rate increase once dorothy Phase 2 is initiated which will lower the return on electric heat. It's a good cost benefit analysis to consider for anyone upgrading right now. The cost of oil may sky rocket in coming years as well.
@ Sync
Holy CRAP! You need to seriously increase the energy efficiency of your home if you're paying $450 - $600 per month at 65f. I have a 100% Electric 5-Star energy rated home that we keep around 67f (when we are there using programmable thermostats) and even in the coldest months my bill has never been over $225 and even that would be an aberration. Average bill in the winter is generally under $200. I have a 2nd 5-Star home that is oil for heat and hot-water and it is significantly more expensive per square foot than the all-electric home despite the fact that it is kept at an even cooler temp. In fact I'm in the process of converting and supplementing the heating with electric due to the reduced cost.
@gmpatton
No luck there. We are renting out a house. Getting the landlord to upgrade or "energize" isn't in the cards. Even so, we were paying less before the Tower surcharge.
I guess it evens out though. We are locked in at $1,150/mo for rent of a 3br house. If we were to move, we would have to pay roughly $1.8k due to ... land lords. That extra $650 goes to heating in winter months.
And no, buying a house isn't possible in Juneau due to the $2.5k monthly mortgage payments.