UniSource Energy Services electric customers will enjoy summer bill savings that average more than $21 per month thanks to reduced natural gas and power prices.
The Arizona Corporation Commission approved UniSource’s request to apply an energy cost credit of 1.85 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to its electric bills from June 1 to Sept. 30. The credit is expected to reduce the bills of typical residential customers by $21.56 per month, on average, or nearly 18 percent.
“We’re passing along significant fuel and energy cost savings to our electric customers just in time for the summer, when temperatures rise and energy usage typically increases,” said David G. Hutchens, UniSource’s President and Chief Executive Officer.
In addition to other service charges, UniSource’s electric bills include two charges for energy, each billed as a rate per kWh used. The Base Power Supply charge is billed at a fixed rate, while the Purchased Power and Fuel Adjustment Charge (PPFAC) varies monthly to reflect changing market prices.
The PPFAC is currently a credit of about 1.3 cents per kWh because natural gas and wholesale power prices have fallen below the company’s Base Power Supply charge. In fact, prices have fallen so steeply that the formula used to calculate the PPFAC cannot reflect the savings quickly enough.
The temporary credit UniSource proposed will pass along more than $10 million in accumulated energy cost savings to customers. The company’s rates are designed to pass along fuel and wholesale energy costs to customers with no markup.
The credit will be applied to the bills of all customers – residential and commercial – generating savings that will vary with usage. Residential customers who use just 330 kWh per month, for example, would save $6.11 per month; those with monthly usage of 2,162 kWh would save $40 per month. The average impact described above is based on average residential usage of 1,166 kWh per month from June through September.
