Delmarva Power and Electric filed a petition Tuesday with the Delaware Public Service Commission to authorize a $62.8 million electric rate increase and a $21.5 million bump in its gas rate.
Delmarva Power president Gary Stockbridge told reporters Tuesday said the rate increase was taking place to help recover costs of reliability, ongoing system upgrades and smart infrastructure investments made from 2013-2015 that have reduced the frequency and duration of power outages.
Delmarva President Gary Stockbridge says the rate increase is to help pay for over $120 million in upgrades to the gas system and $222 million in upgrades to the electrical system.
“We are committed to providing safe and reliable electric and gas service to our customers and the communities we serve," Stockbridge said. "We continue to work hard to reduce the number of times our customers are without service, and to restore services faster when power does go out.”
He also says that from 2011-2015, gas bills have fallen by 24% due to upgrades. If approved, the increases will mean an additional $10.23/month for electric and an additional $13.55 for gas for a typical customer.
"Since 2011 there has been a 17% drop in the number of outages and a 44% increase in the speed in which outages were restored," Stockbridge said. "Since 2012 Delmarva has upgraded equipment, installed automatic switching technology on dozens of feeders designed to isolate outages and restore power to customers quicker."
Matthew Hartigan, Deputy Director of the Delaware Public Service Commission, says Delmarva’s proposed rate adjustment won’t affect the projected $49 million in direct benefits expected from the merger between Delmarva’s parent company Pepco and Exelon, stressing the merger is a separate issue from the proposed rate hikes.
“I haven’t gotten into the details of it, but most major utilities file every one to two years so it’s a little unusual that they’ve been out for three years and haven’t filed for an increase in that amount of time," Hartigan said. "That was due to the merger, they couldn’t really fine when that was ongoing. I guess at first blush it’s not surprising.”
The commission will review the application and hold public comment sessions in all three Delaware counties. The review process is expected to take 7-9 months.
