Avista Makes Price Reduction Requests in Idaho

Avista AVA customers would see a decrease in their electric and natural gas prices on Oct. 1 if the Idaho Public Utilities Commission (IPUC or Commission) approves several annual rate adjustment requests filed today by the company. There is no impact on company earnings from any of these adjustments. The requests include two electric rate adjustments and two natural gas rate adjustments: Avista's annual Power Cost Adjustment (PCA) Avista's annual Purchased Gas Cost Adjustment (PGA) Electric and Natural Gas Energy Efficiency tariff rider adjustments (Tariff Rider) "Each year, we propose to adjust rates our customers pay so that customers' bills reflect our actual costs of purchasing natural gas and generating and purchasing electric power," said Dennis Vermillion, president of Avista Utilities. "Today's requested rate reductions are due to, among other things, lower natural gas prices and lower power supply costs, which is good news for our customers. In fact, if approved, this would be the second natural gas price reduction this year for Avista's Idaho customers, and Idaho customers will have seen their natural gas rates decrease by more than 14 percent overall in 2012." If the requests are approved by the Commission, residential electric customers in Idaho using an average of 939 kilowatt-hours per month would see their monthly bills decrease from $80.55 to $79.46, a decrease of $1.09 per month, or 1.4 percent. Residential natural gas customers using an average of 60 therms a month would see a $4.42, or 7.9 percent, decrease in their monthly rate for a revised monthly bill of $51.36.