Province OKs rate hike for SaskPower but less than requested

SASKATOON Homeowners, renters and businesses that get electricity from SaskPower can expect to see their bills increase after the provincial government approved an average rate hike of 3.5 per cent.

The new rate, which translates to about $4 per month for a typical residential customer, was approved Wednesday by the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel and becomes effective March 1. The third hike in two years, it is lower than the 5.1 per cent SaskPower originally requested.

“Every year, SaskPower is keeping up with new records of power consumption, while working to keep power rates as low as possible,” Minister Responsible for SaskPower Dustin Duncan said Wednesday in a statement.

“With their revised fiscal forecasts during the rate review period, government agrees with the Rate Review Panel that SaskPower can meet this challenge in 2018 with a lower increase,” Duncan added.

According to a government news release, SaskPower in its rate application said it would invest the extra cash in “major maintenance and growth projects,” power grid modernization and efforts to cut emissions by 40 per cent from 2005 levels by 2030.

“This 3.5 per cent will allow us to continue investing in the grid and we will investigate additional ways to save money to compensate for this lower-than-planned increase,” SaskPower president and CEO Mike Marsh said in a statement.

The provincial Crown corporation is in the midst of a massive and ambitious transition to ensure half of its electricity is generated through renewable means by 2030.