A $278 million rate hike request by New York State Electric & Gas and its sister utility, Rochester Gas & Electric, is on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting of the Public Service Commission.
Staff at the Department of Public Service have sought dismissal of the request, so it is possible that the commission members could vote on Tuesday whether to approve the motion and stop the case from moving forward. It could also deny the motion by the staff and allow the case to move forward. The DPS is the administrative arm of the PSC.
NYSEG, which has 800,000 customers in upstate New York, is owned by Iberdrola SA, a Spanish utility. Iberdrola acquired NYSEG and RG&E last fall as part of a $4.5 billion acquisition of Energy East Corp. Under the terms of the PSC’s approval of the deal, NYSEG and RG&E were told they cannot seek a rate increase until October of this year.
NYSEG and RG&E say that their poor financial condition merits a rate increase earlier than that.
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