By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
Tri-State Generation and Transmission recently raised their transportation rate by 12.5% to Raton Public Service Company and as a result of that increase the RPS board will be passing some of that increase on to customers.
The bill that was received from Tri-State this month for Electric transportation costs went up by about $8,000. The transportation costs help Tri-State pay for and maintain transmission lines that they use to bring power to their member coops and customers. As a result of the increase, the RPS board has decided to pass on to the Raton rate payers that increase. The cost to consumers will be $.0020 per kilowatt of power, or from .0745 to .0765.
If a consumer uses 700 kilowatts of power per month the increase will be about $1.40 and will show up in the fuel adjustment cost. The increase will show up in the bill that comes in late March.
Board President Kathy McQuery said they were hoping it wouldn’t be such a big increase that RPS could absorb it, but after receiving the bill from Tri-State they felt it was bigger than they could handle and felt that they had to share the cost with consumers.
