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Utahns' Power Bills Decrease A Little

Rocky Mountain Power

A slight drop in your power bill begins next month following approval of Rocky Mountain Power’s request from the Public Service Commission.

The $15.6-million decrease will average out to about $6.84 a year. Paul Murphy is the spokesman for the utility.  He says it’s the result of a solid forecasting model.

“The good news is that for the past two years we’ve forecast very close and," says Murphy, "for at least two years in a row we’ve asked for a decrease in what a typical Utah residential customer would pay.”

Murphy says the closure of the Deer Creek coal mine factors into the decrease as well as savings through the Energy Imbalance Market.

“Which allows us to buy and sell electricity every 5 minutes and so we know exactly what we need and when we need it and it has allowed us to actually save a lot of money on the price of electricity,” Murphy says.

$26.2 million in benefits during 2015 went to parent company PacificCorp and its customers according to Murphy.  He says rates are expected to be stable for the next ten years because most new power supplies will likely come directly from increased efficiency.

Bob Nelson is a graduate of the University of Utah with a BA in mass communications. He began his radio career at KUER in 1978 when it was still in Kingsbury Hall. That’s also where he met his wife, Maria Shilaos, in 1981. Bob left KUER for commercial radio where he worked for 25 years, and he is thrilled to be back at KUER. Bob and his family are part of an explorer group, fondly known as The Hordes and Masses, which has been seeking out ghost towns and little-known places in Utah for more than twenty years.
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