The board is meeting today in executive session to discuss and then (coming out of executive session) to approve the 2015 Capital Budget. The proposed budget is documented on GVEA's site in the member book packet but is roughly $107 million, including $80 million for Healy Unit 2 restart.
GVEA projects $21 million principal payment on debt and additional loans and other financing of $94 million.
Big chunk of change. You can read the details starting on page 18 of the member book located here.
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Thursday, December 04, 2014
Rate history
I was just looking at my electric bill history and thought it might be interesting to see how rates have changed from past years. I went back to 2010 and below are the rates.
There are two major components to consumption: Utility charge and energy charge.
The utility charge is everything not related to the cost of energy, such as operations, administration, legal, interest, depreciation and payment on loans, distribution and transmission costs.
Energy charge is everything that is related to the cost of energy. It was formerly known as COPA - the cost of power adjustment and meant to allow a utility to change their rates based upon the fluctuating cost of energy (oil, gas, coal, etc.) What is allowed to be included is set by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. For example, some years ago GVEA asked that the cost of ash disposal from the Healy coal fired power plant be allowed to be included in the COPA (the RCA said yes). More recently, GVEA had asked to include the cost of building Eva Creek wind farm in COPA, as there is no energy charge from wind. GVEA withdrew that request after realizing that the RCA wouldn't rule on it in time for it to be of financial advantage to GVEA.
Both rates are initially set after a rate study, which GVEA only does when there is a major shift in the numbers, such as inclusion of a new power plant. Such studies cost over a million dollars so not to be done lightly.
The utility charge is allowed to be changed in the interim every 6 months through a SRF (simplified rate filing) to the RCA, but not more than 8% in a year. The energy charge can be changed quarterly and is subject to this complex formula.
In addition to these two charges, there is a fixed customer charge for the cost of having a meter, regardless of whether you use electricity or not and then a very minor regulatory charge to compensate the RCA for overseeing the public interest of utilities,
If you are a large commercial or industrial customer, you will have a lower utility rate, but then also have a demand charge, based upon your peak consumption for the past 12 months. GVEA talks about all these charges on their website. They do have a handy bill calculator as well. It would be interesting to have a table like below that would go back further.
So here is the last 4 years of rates by month.
There are two major components to consumption: Utility charge and energy charge.
The utility charge is everything not related to the cost of energy, such as operations, administration, legal, interest, depreciation and payment on loans, distribution and transmission costs.
Energy charge is everything that is related to the cost of energy. It was formerly known as COPA - the cost of power adjustment and meant to allow a utility to change their rates based upon the fluctuating cost of energy (oil, gas, coal, etc.) What is allowed to be included is set by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. For example, some years ago GVEA asked that the cost of ash disposal from the Healy coal fired power plant be allowed to be included in the COPA (the RCA said yes). More recently, GVEA had asked to include the cost of building Eva Creek wind farm in COPA, as there is no energy charge from wind. GVEA withdrew that request after realizing that the RCA wouldn't rule on it in time for it to be of financial advantage to GVEA.
Both rates are initially set after a rate study, which GVEA only does when there is a major shift in the numbers, such as inclusion of a new power plant. Such studies cost over a million dollars so not to be done lightly.
The utility charge is allowed to be changed in the interim every 6 months through a SRF (simplified rate filing) to the RCA, but not more than 8% in a year. The energy charge can be changed quarterly and is subject to this complex formula.
In addition to these two charges, there is a fixed customer charge for the cost of having a meter, regardless of whether you use electricity or not and then a very minor regulatory charge to compensate the RCA for overseeing the public interest of utilities,
If you are a large commercial or industrial customer, you will have a lower utility rate, but then also have a demand charge, based upon your peak consumption for the past 12 months. GVEA talks about all these charges on their website. They do have a handy bill calculator as well. It would be interesting to have a table like below that would go back further.
So here is the last 4 years of rates by month.
| Month | Utility | Energy | Subtotal |
| Dec-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.09947 | $0.20288 |
| Nov-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10378 | $0.20719 |
| Oct-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10378 | $0.20719 |
| Sep-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10378 | $0.20719 |
| Aug-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10593 | $0.20934 |
| Jul-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10593 | $0.20934 |
| Jun-14 | $ 0.10341 | $ 0.10593 | $0.20934 |
| May-14 | $ 0.10001 | $ 0.09496 | $0.19497 |
| Apr-14 | $ 0.10001 | $ 0.09496 | $0.19497 |
| Mar-14 | $ 0.10001 | $ 0.09496 | $0.19497 |
| Feb-14 | $ 0.10001 | $ 0.09631 | $0.19632 |
| Jan-14 | $ 0.10001 | $ 0.09631 | $0.19632 |
| Dec-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.09631 | $0.19355 |
| Nov-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.10576 | $0.20300 |
| Oct-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.10576 | $0.20300 |
| Sep-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.10576 | $0.20300 |
| Aug-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.08774 | $0.18498 |
| Jul-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.08774 | $0.18498 |
| Jun-13 | $ 0.09724 | $ 0.08774 | $0.18498 |
| May-13 | $ 0.09597 | $ 0.11078 | $0.20675 |
| Apr-13 | $ 0.09597 | $ 0.11078 | $0.20675 |
| Mar-13 | $ 0.09597 | $ 0.11078 | $0.20675 |
| Feb-13 | $ 0.09597 | $ 0.10802 | $0.20399 |
| Jan-13 | $ 0.09597 | $ 0.10802 | $0.20399 |
| Dec-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.10802 | $0.19806 |
| Nov-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.13768 | $0.22772 |
| Oct-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.13768 | $0.22772 |
| Sep-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.13768 | $0.22772 |
| Aug-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12379 | $0.21383 |
| Jul-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12379 | $0.21383 |
| Jun-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12379 | $0.21383 |
| May-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12527 | $0.21531 |
| Apr-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12527 | $0.21531 |
| Mar-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12527 | $0.21531 |
| Feb-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12737 | $0.21741 |
| Jan-12 | $ 0.09004 | $ 0.12737 | $0.21741 |
| Dec-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.12737 | $0.21528 |
| Nov-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10924 | $0.19715 |
| Oct-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10924 | $0.19715 |
| Sep-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10924 | $0.19715 |
| Aug-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10943 | $0.19734 |
| Jul-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10943 | $0.19734 |
| Jun-11 | $ 0.08791 | $ 0.10943 | $0.19734 |
| May-11 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.10051 | $0.18388 |
| Apr-11 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.10051 | $0.18388 |
| Mar-11 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.10051 | $0.18388 |
| Feb-11 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.08929 | $0.17266 |
| Jan-11 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.08929 | $0.17266 |
| Dec-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.08929 | $0.17266 |
| Nov-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09137 | $0.17474 |
| Oct-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09137 | $0.17474 |
| Sep-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09137 | $0.17474 |
| Aug-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09401 | $0.17738 |
| Jul-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09401 | $0.17738 |
| Jun-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09401 | $0.17738 |
| May-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09890 | $0.18227 |
| Apr-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09890 | $0.18227 |
| Mar-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09890 | $0.18227 |
| Feb-10 | $ 0.08337 | $ 0.09886 | $0.18223 |
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