Regulators allow Pacific Power to recover costs from customers who disconnect services

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) issued an order last week allowing Pacific Power to recover costs from customers who elect to disconnect permanently from the company’s electricity services.

The commission, however, rejected the company’s proposed methods for recovering those costs and directed Pacific Power to determine the costs of stranded facilities and equipment, such as wires and meters, on a case-by-case basis rather than using a fixed formula.

The order provides disconnecting customers with the option to pay to remove impacted facilities or purchase those facilities from the company.

The UTC gave Pacific Power 30 days to file a revised tariff based on the commission’s order.

Pacific Power had an informal service territory agreement with the Columbia Rural Electric Association (CREA), a member-owned electricity cooperative, until 1999. According to Pacific Power, that year, customers began disconnecting permanently from the company’s system and switching services to CREA. To date, 68 customers have switched from Pacific Power to CREA.