EVANSVILLE – After already enduring a steep raise last year, Evansville-area residents will soon watch their CenterPoint bills surge again.
The utility submitted “phase two” of its electric base rate hikes to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Monday. It’s the next step in the increases the IURC greenlit that caused average residential bills to leap by nearly 25% last summer. Some had their costs swell by even more.
The 232-page filing doesn’t list the actual increases – not in plain English, anyway – but in a Monday news release, CenterPoint officials claimed ratepayers could see their bills jump by “$6.86 per month for residential customers,” with a chance for the impact to fall near $4.50 later this year if the IURC ratifies an adjustment to one of CenterPoint’s “riders,” or trackers: terms for the many extra costs the utility tacks onto your bill.
The company called it part of its “renewed commitment” to keep electric rates at or near the level of inflation through 2027.
For a lot of people, however, the increases will be higher than $6.86.
Here’s how much your bill could go up, according to Citizens Action Coalition
According to the release, CenterPoint based its figures off what it deems an “average customer.” That’s someone who uses 799 kilowatt hours of electricity per month.
Usage can soar well past that during the hottest days of the year. And if a person heats their home with electricity instead of natural gas, the same goes for the coldest days of the year as well.
Ben Iskeep, program director for Citizens Action Coalition – one of the intervenors in CenterPoint’s rate case – provided the Courier & Press with a spreadsheet that breaks down the potential hikes based on multiple usages.
He said he based his calculations off figures CenterPoint filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. When you enter 799 kilowatt hours, you come within one cent of CenterPoint’s projected $6.86-per-month increase, excluding sales tax. When you add in the latter, it comes to about $7.35.
Here’s how the increases break down based on kilowatt-hour usage, with sales tax included:
“I am not sure about future changes to trackers and what impact that will have,” Inskeep said.
This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Here’s how much Evansville-area CenterPoint bills could rise this year
Reporting by Jon Webb, Evansville Courier & Press / Evansville Courier & Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
