Requests 2.92% Rate Increase Annually to Provide Customers Stability and Predictability Through 2022
COLCHESTER, Vt. – Green Mountain Power (GMP) today filed a request with the Public Utility Commission (PUC) to increase rates each year for the next three years by 2.92% starting October 1, 2019. This is part of the company’s new Multi-Year Regulation Plan (MYRP). The plan, approved by regulators last month after a yearlong public process, gives GMP customers predictable, smoother rates that nearly match inflation and are comparable in Vermont and among the lowest in New England.
“We are committed to providing clean, cost-effective, reliable power to all of our customers in this time of energy transformation and innovation needed to address climate change,” said GMP President and CEO Mary Powell. “Our team is working tirelessly to hold rates low for customers, as we also continue to offer the latest in innovations such as battery storage that help to drive down costs and provide benefits to all customers.” Many of these innovations, already being put to use for our customers, are responsible for GMP achieving a multi-year rate path that helps maintain such low and stable rates.
The request, subject to PUC review and approval, follows GMP’s recently approved multi-year regulation plan, which is a framework designed to provide stability for customers around energy costs for the next three years. Here’s how it works: the PUC essentially requires GMP to forecast then lock most of its own operational and capital costs and provides for rate variation or change based upon power supply, storms and some other individual cost categories specifically approved by the Commission. In the second and third year, GMP will go back before regulators to adjust rates if needed based on these specific variable items while maintaining the discipline to operate within many locked costs. GMP will also report results over dozens of innovation and operations metrics to ensure it maintains high performance for customers.
The plan also supports GMP’s ability to leverage innovation to lower costs and carbon emissions for all customers.
“We’ve been thrilling families year-round for decades with both skiing and riding and summer adventures at Bromley, and having steady predictability in our energy costs will allow us to better plan how to invest in our company over the next several years,” said Bill Cairns, General Manager of Bromley Mountain Resort, which wins accolades for its family vacations. “GMP has been a great partner and understands our business needs. We appreciate their efforts to keep costs down for customers because energy costs are a big factor for a company like ours.”
This is a time of disruption and change in energy and GMP has been very focused on how to counter the pressures facing the industry and the state. Increasing cost pressures related to being part of the New England grid, retail sales declining, and an increased number of severe storms due to climate change are all impacting customers. GMP has long bucked the “business as usual trend” combatting these pressures by continuing to exceed its commitment to deliver savings, by finding operational efficiencies, and through innovative customer programs that expand the use of energy storage, which both cuts costs and carbon emissions during peak demand times on the grid – when power is most expensive and high-carbon.
“It is great that GMP is committed to keeping its own costs steady and locked near inflation for three years, which helps us when we look at our own budget,” said Leland Ryea of Milton, a GMP customer. “We really appreciate their commitment to providing clean, low-carbon power with rates that are so stable for our family and our small business as well.”
GMP’s energy supply is 90% clean and carbon-free and 60% renewable, and GMP is committed to being 100% carbon free by 2025 and 100% renewable by 2030, well ahead of most utilities its size and decades ahead of Vermont state requirements.
About Green Mountain Power
Green Mountain Power (GMP) serves approximately 265,000 residential and business customers in Vermont and is partnering with them to improve lives and transform communities. GMP is focused on a new way of doing business to meet the needs of customers with integrated energy services that help people use less energy and save money, while continuing to generate clean, cost-effective and reliable power in Vermont. GMP earned a spot on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies in the World list three years in a row (2017, 2018, 2019). GMP is the first utility in the world to get a B Corp certification, meeting rigorous social, environmental, accountability and transparency standards and committing to use business as a force for good. J.D. Power’s 2018 rankings put GMP among top utilities for customer satisfaction.
Kristin Kelly, Green Mountain Power
(802) 318-0872
[email protected]