PUC Allows Firm’s First Gas And Electric Rate Hikes In Years
PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission has approved a utility company’s first natural gas rate increase in 11 years and its first electric rate hike in two decades.
The regulatory commission agreed to the increases, which were negotiated down from what MidAmerican Energy originally requested, at a meeting Tuesday in Pierre.
The natural gas rate increase will hike the rates of the firm’s 88,000 natural gas customers in the state by an average of about 5.7 percent. MidAmerican’s roughly 5.7 percent average increase for its electric customers isn’t scheduled to fully go into effect for some time.
The firm has agreed not to ask the commission for an electric or natural gas base rate increase until at least February 2018.