Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
Only six months after the last increase went into effect, Shawano Municipal Utilities is asking the state Public Service Commission for another hike in electric utility rates.
“We have a need for a rate adjustment,” City Administrator and SMU General Manager Brian Knapp said.
SMU filed with the PSC on June 30 seeking a 1.7 percent increase.
“We hope it can be effective as quickly as possible,” Knapp said.
Knapp said SMU has fallen short of revenue expected since the new rates went into effect, largely due to changes in behavior by large industrial customers.
Some of those customers, he said, have shifted more of their production to off-peak hours to take advantage of lower overnight rates between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m.
“We need to make some adjustments in order to return to profitability,” Knapp said.
The PSC has responded with some follow-up questions for SMU.
“It will be a little while yet, a month or so, before they can tell us what their analysis of our rate increase should be,” Knapp said.
The utility’s request is based on what it hopes its rate of return will be. The actual rates are set by the PSC.
SMU applied to the last year year for a rate increase that would deliver a 5.5 percent of return.
That request was the result of the utility falling short of the 6 percent rate of return the PSC authorized in 2014.
The rate increase that went into effect at the beginning of this year increased monthly bills by an average about 1.94 percent.
Knapp said the new increase, if approved, will likely be geared more toward industrial customers, but it’s possible commercial and residential users could also see another increase.