Garkane Power Rates To Go Up In April The average residential customer of Garkane Power Association will be paying more for electricity beginning be-ginning in April. The increase will be reflected through the use of wholesale power cost adjustment which will increase revenues to offset increased power costs. The move comes after Garkane's board of directors met in their regular March board meeting and discussed the need to recover costs and the financial integrity of the cooperative. Wholesale power costs to Garkane have increased over 70 percent since 1987 according to Garkane general manager Glen Willardson. Willardson cited four reasons for the sharp increase in wholesale costs to Garkane: 1) No surplus energy was available from the Western Area Power Administration Administra-tion because of the "below normal" water year in the Colorado River Basin, 2) Increased sales on Garkane's system, 3) Increased purchases pur-chases from Desert Generation and Transmission a high cost power supplier, and 4) very cold weather. "The past four months Garkane has operated at a loss each month and needs to recover these costs to remain financially strong and to meet its mortgage requirements with the Rural Electrification Administration Ad-ministration and the Cooperative Finance Corporation," said Willardson. The wholesale power cost adjustment ad-justment is a part of every rate schedule approved by both the Utah Public Service Commission and the Arizona Corporation Commission and allows the cooperative a method for recovering increased wholesale power costs. Regarding the permanency of the adjustment, Willardson said it will remain in effect until a formal cost of service study is completed and Garkane's overall rate structure is analyzed in detail. This will be the first rate adjustment ad-justment for Garkane customers in three years.