LANSING – Consumers Energy will be able to charge more for its natural gas service and Detroit Edison more for electricity, but both increases were substantially below what the utilities requested under orders issued Tuesday by the Public Service Commission.
Edison was allowed an $83.6 million increase in its rates, but that was below both its initial request, $123 million, and its amended request, $284 million.
The order (case No. U-15244) also provides another step in deskewing electric rates for residential customers. The 4.5 percent increase on those customers represents elimination of 38.5 percent of the subsidy provided by commercial and industrial customers. The commission included a plan to increase residential rates 1.7 percent a year to complete removal of that subsidy.
The order also includes plans for the commission to track Edison’s tree-trimming efforts, as untrimmed trees have been implicated in a number of storm-related outages in recent months.
Consumers can increase its gas rates $22.4 million, 75 percent less than the $91.1 million it had requested. The order (case No. U-15629) also resolves a related case (U-15506) and prohibits Consumers from filing another rate increase until after May 1.
This story was provided by Gongwer News Service. To subscribe, click on Gongwer.Com
a>>
