The state Public Utilities Commission is mulling ways to shield utility ratepayers with disabilities and medical conditions—requiring in-home use of life-saving devices—from summertime spikes in their power bills under Xcel Energy’s oft-criticized tiered-rating program.
Tiered rates charge residential utility customers more—nearly doubling the price per kilowatt hour of electricity—whenever a household exceeds 500 kilowatt hours a month in the summertime. The June-through-September program, which began last year with the PUC’s approval, has been hailed as an incentive to conserve by its fans and derided as punitive by critics.
A bipartisan measure approved by lawmakers set the wheels in motion for the PUC to consider the medical exemption. The measure, Senate Bill 87, sponsored by Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood and Reps. Rhonda Fields, D-Aurora, and Donald Beezely, R-Broomfield, left it up to the PUC to allow for the exemption and to determine what constitutes a warranted medical condition or life-saving device.
Beezely said the exemption is the right thing to do under the current situation but the tiered rating system is the wrong thing to do if conservation is the goal.
“This tiered rating is nothing short of punishing energy users and does nothing to promote conservation,” said Beezely. “People who are the most vulnerable are bearing the brunt of that punishment.”
Yet, Rep. Randy Fischer, D-Fort Collins, said in March, when a proposal to end tiered rating was considered by lawmakers, that the inflated rates are needed to address expanding energy needs driven by an increase in population and larger homes with air conditioning.
“It’s a fair way of distributing the cost of energy. People that drive the need for more plants should pay for them,” said Fischer.
Siding with Beezely was House Republican Rep. Jim Kerr, of Littleton, who says the needed medical exemption is indicative of a bad policy in the first place.
“There’s an awful lot of people impacted by this. All of a sudden electric bills go up and for folks who rely on air conditioning or medical equipment, the rate increase is unconscionable,” said Kerr. “Micromanaging electric bills is not the way to address conservation issues.”
The PUC is currently soliciting input from the public on how to determine eligibility rules for carving out a medical exemption. A public hearing will be held in October when the three-member commission will decide whether or not to allow the exemption and under what circumstances.
You may use part or all of this article in Web or print publications, as well as in radio and TV broadcasts, at no charge and without further permission. Please credit the Colorado News Agency.