SNOHOMISH COUNTY — Your power bill will increase a bit April 1.
For single-family homeowners, a 4.9% pricing increase will up the bill by about $6 a month on average.
For apartment residents, the 4.9% increase will be about $4 a month on average.
The PUD initiated a separate fixed base charge in 2022, which is like a daily fee for having electricity service. The metered rate of 10.263 cents per kilowatt is staying the same.
Increases to the fixed charge are increasing the electricity bills.
For single-family homes, it will rise from 59 cents per day now to 80 cents per day in April 1, or a fixed $6.30 fee increase in a 30-day month for all single-family users.
For apartment residents, it will rise from 36 cents per day now to 49 cents per day, which pencils to a fixed $3.90 fee increase in a 30-day month. Residents in other forms of multifamily housing will see the same.
The fixed charge was created to balance revenues in the face of more people buying energy-efficient appliances and products that use less electricity, the PUD said previously.
The PUD’s board approved an average 4.6% systemwide increases at its Jan. 21 meeting.
The increases will bring in about $32 million more revenue for the PUD’s bottom line for the next 12 months.
The main reason for the increases is because of weather events last year, the utility said in a press release. It spent $16 million on restoration efforts after November’s powerful windstorm, it said.
Last year, the PUD made a 5.8% general residential rate increase. It was to compensate for big weather events such as the 2024 Martin Luther King Jr. weekend freeze, which required the utility to purchase a larger-than-normal amount of electricity from suppliers to prevent brownouts.
