20051006Comment.pdf

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Jean Jewell
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From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Ed Howell
Thursday, October 06, 2005 12:25 AM
Jean Jewell; Ed Howell; Gene Fadness; Tonya Clark
Com ment acknowledgement
WWW Form Submission:
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
11 : 2 5 : 1 9
Case: AVU-G-05-02
Name: Gene Carpenter
Street Address: POB 1746
City: Hayden
State: ID
ZIP: 83835
Home Telephone: [phone]
E-Mail: gene~uidaho. edu
Company: Avista
Comment description: September 5, 2005
TO:
FR:
RE:
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
Gene Carpenter
Increase in rates for electricity and gas (Avista)
Yearly rate increases for electricity and gas are getting out of hand. I think thatAvistaUtili ties forgets that it exists as a state approved monopoly. As such it owes its
customers some consideration when setting its rates. Instead Avista appears to give
consideration only to the holders of its stock. A rate of return of 10.4 percent is
higher than many companies without exclusive rights to sell their products to their
customers can expect to generate.
Some of the 10.4 percent ought to be used to beef up generation and transmission
systems, purchase of power plants, and improvement to dams. Companies without
the advantage of being a publicly approved monopoly must use their profits to pay foroperational expenses. I suspect Avista is still trying to make their customers pay for
the mistakes they made during the electricity shortages of a few years ago.
One of the sources of electrical power, BPA, has said they will reduce cost by 1.percent. This does not sound like much but it can amount to a large sum when largeamounts of power are purchased form this sources.
This yearly increase in the cost of electricity and gas is pushing the cost of essentialenergy beyond what many of the consumers can pay. They have not receivedequi valent yearly increases in their incomes. Some consideration needs to be givento this.
Transaction ID: 1052325.Referred by: http: / /www.puc. state. ide us/scripts/polyform. dll/ipuc
User Address: 216.255.194.169
User Hostname: 216.255.194.169