The South Dakota PUC approved a rate increase for Northwestern Energy’s Electric customers. The increase was a settlement between northwestern and the PUC staff as it was not as much as Northwestern originally requested. PUC chairperson Kristie Fiegen explains some of the factors in the rate increase.
The increase was the first in nearly 9 years for Northwestern. Fiegen said in that time Northwestern still invested in improvements to the service chain.
According to Fiegen the PUC is the watch dog’s for SD customers and the priority is to provide is to secure benefits to rate payers while insuring the investor owned utilities continue to provide safe and reliable energy service. She said Northwestern is working on more plans for improvements to their infrastructure and customer base.
Northwestern Energy rate increase took effect January 10th.