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Show fieiv Rate Increase Sought By Utah Power & Light Utah Power & Light Thursday filed application with the Utah Public Service Commission for permission to raise its state jurisdictional electric service revenues in I Utah. In asking for the increase, the utility said the percentage of growth in the State of Utah , is one of the fastest in the Ution, thus requiring the ; construction of large amounts ' of generating and associated r electrical facilities. "Growing i as fast as we are, coupled with '. the pressures of inflation, we have no choice but to ask for ' rate. reief in order to offset J the higher cost of doing j business and to attract the capital needed for expansion" according to UP&L President, i E. A. Hunter. 'The most ', dramatic examples are higher l fuel, operating, labor, con-( con-( ttruction, and financing costs. ( In addition, there is an in-j in-j creasing requirement for the ( company to invest more mon-t mon-t ey in nonrevenue producing . pollution control facilities," Mr. Hunter said. ' In the UP&L application, the company asked for a two ? part increase totalling $42 e million. In Utah, for the j average residential customer without water heating serv-. serv-. ices, whose average monthly use is 500 kilowatt-hours, the increase, if granted, would be about 15 cents per day. Part one asks that the second phase of certain accounting " procedures, as granted by the Public Service Commission r last March, become effective f on January 31, 1977. The J Commission granted the com pany mclusion of an allowance ' to normalize the tax effect of " accelerated depreciation in e three yearly steps and also allowance for construction work in progress in the rate base to be implemented in five yearly steps. Implementation '' of part one, previously ap-" ap-" proved by the Public Service ni Commission, accounts for $17 1 million. " ' Part two of the company's request asks for permission to 1'' recover additional revenue in ' order to offset increase costs ' of providing service and to " continue in order to offset increased costs of providing service and to continue the firm's financial integrity. Implementation Im-plementation of part two accounts ac-counts for $25 million. In asking for the rate increase, the company said the additional revenue requested re-quested would not result in a rate of return on equity greater than that granted by the Public Service Commission Commis-sion in the previous rate hearings.- Mr. Hunter said, "We have been stepping up our cost saving and operating efficiencies efficien-cies procedures to try to offset the higher and higher costs caused by inflation. Despite De-spite that effort, he said, with the pressures of growth and the demand for electricity in the state, the company has no alternative but to ask for a rate increase." About 75 percent of the money for construction comes through sales of bonds and stock offerings to the public. The company's investment in facilities to serve its customers custom-ers as of the end of 1976 totalled $1.2 billion. In the next five years, the company projects it will invest an additional $1.5 billion to continue con-tinue to serve its customers. The application also asked that the new rates be allowed to go into effect for services ' rendered on and after January Janu-ary 31, 1977. The company is also filing for an increase in its service rate to its customers in southeastern south-eastern Idaho and southwestern southwest-ern Wyoming. The company serves some 326,000 customers in Utah. |