By By Janet Little Cooper
Alabama Power customers will see an increase in their power bill starting this month. A number of adjustments were passed in December causing a price hike for utility customers that began with the New Year.
Alabama Power, the state's largest electrical utility company, asked regulators with the Alabama Public Service Commission for approval of three different areas of rate increase.
"The first adjustment was due to the higher cost of natural gas and coal," Bernie Fogarty, Alabama Power Public Relations Director said. "It is a Energy Cost Recovery that does nothing but recover the higher cost of the fuel. Absolutely no profit is made from the increase."
Another adjustment request was made due to the expense imposed from a federally mandated environmental program that requires the utility company to implement pollution control equipment in its operations.
The most recent request came as a result of the damage caused by 2005 Hurricanes.
"We had two million dollars in repair cost from Hurricanes Ivan, Dennis and Katrina," Fogarty said. "$125 million is still needed to complete the recovery. We were able to cover all but that. This increase will be temporary depending on anymore hurricane activity and damage."
The company has a natural disaster reserve that was depleted by the storms. The approved increase will allow the utility company to build the fund back up to $75 million.
According to Fogarty, the average customer using 1000-kilo watt-hours will see an overall increase of $9.60 on their electric bills from the three adjustments that were recently approved by the Commission.