Higher electric rates for Otter Tail Power customers

Electric rates soon will increase for Minnesota customers of Otter Tail Power Co., a Fergus Falls-based electric utility.
The Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved an interim rate hike, beginning in mid-April, for the utility's 61,100 customers in western Minnesota.
But the commission balked at Otter Tail's requested 10.9 percent increase on the base rate for all customers. It ordered the company within 10 days to scale back the interim rate, which likely will drop it below 10 percent. The revised interim rate hike is subject to refund if regulators later approve a lower permanent rate hike, a process that will take more than a year.
For residential customers, Otter Tail's requested permanent rate hike would increase the average customer's bill by $9.53 per month, or $114 per year, according to a regulatory filing.
The investor-owned utility said the increase will allow it to recover investments in pollution controls on its Big Stone, S.D., coal-fired power plant and in new transmission lines and to cover other, higher costs since its 2009 rate case.
The utility's explanation is at www.otpco.com/MNRateCase.