Idaho PUC approves new Intermountain Gas Demand Side Management Program

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approved this week a proposal by Intermountain Gas to create and fund a new Demand Side Management (DSM) Program to improve efficiency for residential customers.

An efficiency rider or surcharge of 0.367 cents per therm will fund the program. That will amount to 22 cents per month for the average customer using 61 therms per month. The surcharge will appear on customer bills starting on Oct. 1.

DSM programs encourage customers to reduce their energy use or to use less energy during periods of peak demand.

Customers that participate benefit from reduced energy use and incentives such as rebates and lower rates. In a successful DSM program, all customers benefit because the reduced energy use allows the utility to avoid or defer building new generation resources or procuring new resources.

To allow a program to be funded by efficiency riders, the PUC requires utilities to demonstrate that its costs over the previous 12 months were reasonable. Intermountain’s program is anticipated to cost $770,000 in its first year, with $600,00 reserved for customer rebates.