CVPS Seeks 4.46 Percent Rate Increase in 2008
May 15 2007 - 5:00PM
Business Wire
Driven largely by increased transmission and power costs and
reliability improvements, Central Vermont Public Service (NYSE-CV)
today filed for a 4.46 percent rate increase to take effect next
February. Under the proposed change, a residential customer using
500 kilowatt-hours per month would see an increase from $71.46 to
$74.65. Similar customers elsewhere in New England pay over $100.
�Our increased costs relate in part to changes in wholesale power
market prices and transmission costs,� President Bob Young said.
�We are also spending more on customer service and reliability
improvements.� Young said the company increased its capital budget,
largely for reliability improvements, from $18 million in 2006 to
$26 million in 2007, and expects to maintain the higher spending in
coming years. �That is critical to providing customers the
reliability and service restoration levels they have come to
expect,� Young said. �Our stable, long-term power contracts have to
a great degree protected our customers from rising energy costs
over the past several years,� Young said. �Recently, however, we
have experienced a decline in the prices we receive from the sale
of our excess energy into the wholesale market. That has resulted
in a net increase in our overall power costs.� CVPS rates have
increased at about one-sixth the rate of inflation in the past
eight years, with just a handful of small increases and decreases
in that time. Overall, current rates are just 3.5 percent higher
than in 1999. The consumer price index has risen 21 percent, while
the CPI for energy has risen 85 percent in the same time period.
�Even with this request, our rates will remain very low compared to
major utilities in New England,� Young said. CVPS today also
formally notified the Vermont Public Service Board that it hopes to
file an alternative regulation plan in the near future. The company
has been talking with the Vermont Department of Public Service and
others about the plan. It will include mechanisms and incentives to
encourage further cost controls and efficiencies. �Alternative
regulation can improve financial stability, ensure funding for
customer service and reliability improvements, and increase
transparency and accountability to our customers,� Young said.
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