Thursday, June 9, 2011

MDU Rates Increase -- Less Than Requested -- Wind Power Related Costs?

Link here.

Data points:
  • Monthly minimum rate jumps from $5.50 to $10.64.
  • Old plan: $5.50 minimum and 7.8 cents/kwh.
  • New plan: $10.64 minimum and 7.6 cents/kwh.
  • If I read that correctly, if your usage exceeds 140 kwh, you would be paying 7.6 cents/kwh. If your usage is less,  your rate/kwh would be higher.
  • But the article says the average user would pay almost $2.00 more a month.
  • So I must be interpreting the article incorrectly (wouldn't be the first time).
Two direct quotes from the article:
  •  Under the new rate plan, a residential customer will pay a $10.64 minimum monthly charge and 7.6 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity used. When the rate case was filed, customers were paying a $5.50 minimum and 7.8 cents per kwh.
  • An average residential MDU customer who uses 750 kwh per month will pay almost $2 more a month for electricity than they were paying under the original rate structure, the commission said.

Apparently, some customers will pay more than $10.64 for the minimum monthly charge but all will pay 7.4 cents/kwh.


Wind power related costs
During the commission's debate on the rate increase, Cramer pushed to have the PSC's final order exclude two Montana-Dakota wind power projects near Baker, Mont., in southeastern Montana. The Diamond Willow projects cost $65 million to build and are capable of generating about 30 megawatts of electricity.


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