The Updated Bottom Line

A couple of months ago, we provided some information on this blog about bill changes you've experienced over the last several months and what you might expect to see in the future. Since that time, there have been some new developments that have changed the numbers. We wanted you to be aware of these changes.

As we did in the original blog posting, we'll use the example of a homeowner who uses 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity each month (the average usage in Yukon is about 750 kilowatt hours per month).

Last July, this person’s bill would have been $132.80, including GST.

The Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. asked the Yukon Utilities Board to approve an 11 percent increase in rates. While the YUB considered the request, it approved on an interim basis an increase of five percent, starting on August 1 of last year.

Assuming our sample homeowner used the same amount of power in August as in July, their bill increased to $138.60.

Then Yukon Energy asked for a rate decrease of 17.8 percent for residential customers using 1,000 kilowatt hours or less a month. While the YUB considered our request, it approved an interim decrease of 3.48 percent, starting December 1, 2008.

As a result, our homeowner’s bill decreased to $134.56 starting in December. Again, this is based on 1,000 kilowatt hours of electricity used.

Are you still with us? There’s more!

Early this year, the two utilities announced that the Fuel Adjustment Rider (Rider F) had been reduced to zero for bills starting March 1, 2009, and continuing until the YUB determines Yukon Electrical Company Ltd.‘s final rates. This will save our sample homeowner $19.53 per month during this period, decreasing his or her monthly bill to $115.03. With this change, power bills are lower today than at any time since at least January 2006. And they may go even lower soon.

We are still waiting to learn the final amount that the Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. will be allowed to charge its customers. But based on a recent ruling from the Yukon Utilities Board, the Yukon Electrical Company Ltd. will not receive the full 11 percent increase it asked for. Instead, the revised rate changes that have been proposed would see the homeowner's bill dropping to $114.05 a month.

There's one more piece to this puzzle. The Rate Stabilization Program is a Yukon government subsidy you will notice on your power bill. The program is scheduled to end in July of this year. If that happens in combination with Yukon Energy’s request for a 17.8 percent decrease and all other expected rate changes, the monthly bill for a residential customer using 100 kilowatt hours of power in a billing period would be $115.44.

The bottom line for Yukon Energy is that we're doing everything within our power to keep your electric bills as low as possible.