Public Utilities Commissioners have settled with Northwestern Energy after almost seven months of analyzing the company’s request to increase rates for customers.
The new 11.38% increase will generate over $21 million dollars for Northwestern. The PUC said customers will see an average increase of $13.67 on their monthly bill.
The PUC established a moratorium, ensuring the company could not ask for another rate increase until 2027. Northwestern has maintained the same rates for almost nine years.
“Commissioners are the watchdogs for South Dakota customers and our priority is to secure benefits to ratepayers while also ensuring the investor-owned utilities continue to provide safe, reliable energy service,” said PUC Chairperson Kristie Fiegen.
PUC staff say the seven months of negotiation saved South Dakotans an average of nine million dollars annually.
“Northwestern has made significant investments to maintain reliability of their electricity supply and distribution. This rate decision recognizes that needed investment while reducing the rate requested by the utility to the minimum required for reliable operation of their system. I commend PUC staff for their hard work in arriving at this settlement determination,” said PUC Commissioner Chris Nelson.
The new agreed upon rate structure for Northwestern's 64,680 electric customers goes into effect Jan. 10.
