Electricity rate to increase slightly for customers

with an electric bill. a settlement in the latest el paso electric rate case means another increase for residential and commercial customers. but if you have solar energy … it’s a temporary victory for you. abc-7’s darren hunt is live in our newsroom to explain … darren. rick/estela, those solar customers won’t have to pay a surcharge… so a little bit of savings if that’s you. but for most of us, we’re about to pay even more. and get this… el paso electric is promising to file yet another rate case… so your bill could go up even more early next year. “the city is growing and we wan to make sure that we can keep up with the reliable energy that we have in the community.” e-p-e spokesman eddie gutierrez said that’s why el pasoans will pay more for electricity beginning next month. “we want to make investments, w have older generation, some that’s built from the 30s and 40s and we need to plan for its retirement and we’re looking for new equipment, things that are more efficient.” here’s the impact for an average home using 625 kilowatt hours per month: during summer, customers are already paying about 79 dollars per month and 76 dollars a month in winter. with the settlement, that’s expected to rise another two to three dollars a month. meanwhile, commercial customers should see a three percent increase. “we need to preserve that incentive for people in this community to install solar on their rooftops.” senator jose rodriguez fought for the removal of separate charges of up to 11 dollars a month for solar customers and won … but he understands e-p-e plans to come back with another rate case in a few months. “i want to congratulate eco e paso for negotiating in good faith and resolving the issues this year and then lets see what next year brings.” “its an electric bill, you’ve got to pay it anyways.” e p-e customers seemed ok with the increases, but questioned paying for new infrastructure. “if they have old infrastructur they should be paying for it with the capital that we’ve all put into as we’ve paid our rates over the years, they should be apportioning their money, we all have to, they should too.” again, e-p-e made no bones about coming back with yet another rate case next year … so while this latest increase and victory for solar customers soaks in … we could pay even more a year from now. rick/estela. we’re still waiting for el paso electric to calculate