El Paso Electric: No Increase In Bills Expected From Feb. Storm

El Paso Electric does not expect residential customers to see an increase in their bills as a result of a February storm, according to the company’s president.

David Stevens, El Paso Electric president, made the statement in letter in a special edition of the company’s newsletter posted on the company’s website.

In the letter, Stevens said one of the main questions he and company officials have been getting is whether customers have to pay for the fuel purchases made during the four-day period in February when El Paso Electric’s local generators went down and electricity and fuel had to be purchased from outside vendors.

“If such purchases are deemed to be prudent by regulatory authorities, the cost to the average residential customer is likely to be about 10 cents per month for one year,” Stevens wrote in the letter. “However, such an increase should be more than offset by credits our customers receive for off-system sales. We anticipate that our residential customers will see no increase in their bills as a result of this weather event.”

Stevens also answered who will pay for the repairs to the power plant equipment damaged in the winter storm, as well as the overtime costs incurred by El Paso Electric employees.

“All costs incurred to date as a result of the repairs made to EPE’s local power plants and the additional labor costs associated with the weather event and repairs will be borne by EPE shareholders,” Stevens said. “This amount is expected to exceed $1 million.”

Stevens went on to say that although people have been asking for public presentations about what happened during the storm, it would be premature to have such meetings until the different regulatory investigations into the incident have been completed.

“Once the reports are issued, El Paso Electric will publicly address the key findings of such reports,” Stevens said.

El Paso Electric filed a report with the Public Utilities Commission of Texas on Feb. 14. regarding the Feb. 2-4 incident. The report had numerous errors, including dates that were mixed up, incorrect temperature readings and discrepancies from what utility officials initially told the media about equipment preparations.

A Public Utilities Commission of Texas spokesman told ABC-7 on Wednesday that El Paso Electric has not filed a supplemental report correcting any errors in the initial report. The spokesman said the only submission El Paso Electric has made since the initial report was the changing of its attorney’s address.

The Public Utility Commission of Texas is continuing to investigate the El Paso winter storm incident. After the commission’s review is complete, it will be presented to its commissioners.

The commissioners will decide whether to mandate improvements or instate better planning or maintenance procedures. Ultimately, the Public Utility Commission oversees any rate increase. If the commission finds any wrongdoing and the utility wants to recover added costs from the storm through a rate increase, Public Utility Commission officials said that may not happen.

“EPE has always made reliable service a high priority, which I believe is evident from our strong reliability record in recent years,” Stevens said. “Since 2006, EPE has been ranked in the top three among Texas utilities for the least number of unplanned or forced outages. However, the events of February 2-4 have shown us that we must do an even better job in the future of keeping the power flowing and the lights on. That is our commitment to all of our customers and the communities we serve.”

EPE stated in the conclusion of its Feb. 14 report that it had done all it could to prepare for the weather but the weather was just too cold.

Read the full report: El Paso Electric Report To Public Utility Commission On 2011 Winter Storm Event

Read El Paso Electric’s Winter Storm 2011 infrastructure checklist here.