County expands intervention on El Paso Eletric’s proposed rate hike

County commissioners voted to expand their intervention against El Paso Electric’s proposed rate hikes.

Originally, the County only planned on intervening on their behalf. Meaning that they were concerned with protecting their special rate, known as “Rate 41.” The City, Housing Authority, and several school districts also get this rate.

Now the County also plans on negotiating on behalf of regular customers and solar panel customers.

“One of the things that we want to ensure is that we play the advocacy role — not just for county residents, but also for the solar users,” county judge Veronica Escobar said. “We don’t have a lot of solar users in El Paso, but this rate case will significantly affect their fees and what they pay.”

El Paso Electric announced the rate proposal back in February. El Paso Electric said the average monthly residential bill increase in the summer would be $9.27 and the average monthly residential bill increase in the winter would be $7.24.

The County estimates that the proposed rate hikes would increase prices by about 20 percent.

“Some of what they’re trying to apply, would completely do away with the need for solar energy,” county commissioner Andrew Haggerty said. “We’re the Sun City, and if we’re telling people it doesn’t work, I don’t know if that’s the right answer.”

In 2015, the County also intervened when El Paso Electric raised its rates.

“Nobody likes any of these rate increases, nobody wants to pay more. However, there’s major investments that we’ve made for our infrastructure where this process has to be done in order for us to collect on those investments that have been made,” El Paso Electric spokesperson George De La Torre said, back on March 13. “We’ll see where we end up at the end of this rate case because this is not something that happens over night or in a couple of weeks.”

De La Torre said the rate increase likely wouldn’t go into affect until early 2018.

“Now that [the County is] part of the intervening group, then that’s when all of that is going to be discussed, and it’s part of this long process,” De La Torre said. “When we get to the end that’s when we’ll see what the impact is overall for everyone.”