El Paso Electric files to increase fuel charge fee for Texas customers

If approved, El Paso Electric’s fuel charge will increase to $3.55 a month for its average residential customers in Texas.

EPE has filed a request to increase the fee with the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT).

The average fuel charge for residential customers is currently about $3.39 a month, a utility spokesman told ABC-7.

Utilities are only allowed to recover fuel charges. They are not allowed to make a profit on these costs.

The goal is “to more accurately reflect the current cost, and forecasted rising cost, of fuel,” a utility official said.

If approved by the PUCT, the new fuel charge would go into effect on January 1, 2017. EPE said the last fuel charge adjustment occurred in April 2015.

The fuel charge is the cost of the fuel used to generate electricity. The utility said its fuel costs have been increasing and the “costs are exceeding the amount that being collected through the current fuel charge.”