Minnesota rate case
Rising costs and growing energy use drive the need to increase rates
To meet our customers' needs and ensure we have all the competitively priced electricity necessary, many utilities like Otter Tail Power Company will need to increase rates to pay for new lines and energy resources while continuing to maintain their current electric systems. Due to rising costs and growing energy use Otter Tail Power Company filed a rate case in Minnesota on October 1, 2007. Currently we intend to file a rate case in North Dakota by the end of 2008 and in South Dakota within the next two years.
Otter Tail Power Company's goal is to continue to offer rates that are among the lowest in the nation.
Serving customers as reliably and economically as possible
While the cost of living has risen nearly 90 percent since 1986, Otter Tail Power Company hasn't raised rates in Minnesota or South Dakota since then or in North Dakota since 1982. We've been focusing our attention on efforts to keep customers' rates low and still maintain reliable electric service.
Rising costs
Unfortunately, these efforts no longer are enough. We're subject to a wholesale energy market that's heavily influenced by increases in natural gas and other fossil fuel prices. And overall costs to run our business continue to rise, as does electricity use.
Growing energy use
Since we filed our last Minnesota rate case in 1986, electricity use has grown by more than 20 percent while the number of customers has grown by less than 6 percent. This growth in use has occurred despite our conservation improvement efforts. Between 1992 and 2005 in Minnesota alone our Conservation Improvement Program has saved the amount of electricity that approximately 90,000 average homes in our service area would have used in a year.
