Alliant Energy Iowa energy company files rate requests for electric, natural gas
Alliant Energy’s Iowa energy company recently filed proposals with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) to recover costs associated with new wind generation, investments to enhance reliability and customer service for its electric customers and investments in its natural gas distribution system.
The company is requesting a total increase in annual retail electric revenues of $204 million. The increase would place in two phases. Interim rates starting on April first would provide a $90 million increase, and final rates implemented in 2020 would provide the remaining increase of $114 million.
Overall, customer bills are expected to increase by approximately 2 percent in 2019 and 5 percent in 2020 as a result of the electric revenue increase.
The increase is driven by investments in clean energy, enhanced reliability and improved customer service. The company installed underground wires to reduce outages, installed stronger distribution lines and added technology to the grid to provide automatic outage reports.
Two new wind farms, Upland Prairie and English Farms, will begin serving customers this month. The two facilities are expected to save customers approximately $25 million in fuel costs in 2019, the company noted. The two projects are the first of the company’s $1.8 billion wind energy expansion. Three more wind farms are anticipated to come online in 2020.
“Our investments in wind energy will bring long-term benefits to Iowa,” Terry Kouba, president of Alliant Energy’s Iowa energy company, said. “Beyond being renewable, wind energy delivers lower fuel costs for customers, property taxes to communities and lease payments to landowners.”
For natural gas, the company is requesting a total increase in annual retail revenues of $21 million. Overall customer bills for natural gas customers would increase by approximately 3 percent from 2019 to 2020.
The request is driven by the replacement of aging materials, addition of advanced metering infrastructure and additional inspection and safety equipment.
“Our investments in the natural gas system are delivering continued resilience supporting customers in the state. Continued development in the natural gas distribution system showed its value in our ability to meet high demands during the incredibly harsh polar vortex we saw this winter,” Kouba said.
