INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) encourages Indianapolis Power & Light Co. (IPL) customers to comment on the utility’s pending rate request, either by speaking at the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s (IURC’s) public field hearing on Monday, March 16, 2015, or sending written comments to the OUCC by Tuesday, March 31, 2015.
The March 16 IURC public field hearing will be held at the Crispus Attucks Medical Magnet High School Auditorium (1140 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. St.) at 6:00 p.m. The OUCC will conduct an informational meeting at 5:30 p.m., immediately before the field hearing.
IPL provides electric service to about 470,000 customers in Marion County and portions of nine surrounding counties. Its request would raise a monthly residential bill for 1,000 kWh from $97.82 to $103.95, according to the OUCC’s calculations.
This would include increasing the flat, monthly customer charge from $11.00 to $17.00. The “energy charge,” or the part of the base rate that varies by usage, would also rise.
The current residential base rate of $66.50 for 1,000 kWh received IURC approval in IPL’s last base rate case in 1995. However, bills have increased since then due to rate recovery mechanisms — or “trackers”— which allow rate increases for specific items on a regular, expedited basis.
The OUCC, the state agency representing consumer interests in cases before the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), is reviewing IPL’s request and is scheduled to file testimony on April 6, 2015.
Consumers who are unable to attend the field hearing but wish to submit written comments may do so via the OUCC’s Website at www.in.gov/oucc/2361.htm, or by mail (Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor, 115 W. Washington St., Suite 1500 South, Indianapolis IN 46204), e-mail (uccinfo@oucc.IN.gov), or fax at (317) 232-5923.
For more information on this case, including links to IPL’s testimony, please visit www.in.gov/oucc/2723.htm.