PSO electric rates to increase 20 percent

Saturday, May 29th 2004, 3:19 pm

By: News On 6

TULSA, Okla. (AP) _ Electricity rates for Public Service Company of Oklahoma customers will increase by 20 percent so the utility can cover the additional cost of meeting peak demand this summer, officials said.

The rate hike will be applied to electric bills from June through October.

The higher summer rate is needed to pay for the extra power required to keep cooling systems running during the hottest time of the year, Jeff Rennie, a company spokesman said Friday.

``We have to have more plants ready to meet the summer load, so our costs are higher,'' Rennie said.

The bill for an average residential customer using 1,000 kilowatt-hours a month will total $78.95 beginning with the June cycle. The cost is 1.4 percent higher than the $77.84 the average residential customer paid in 2003, officials said.

Natural gas is used to produce about 40 percent of PSO's electric generation. PSO's gas costs are passed on to customers.

``We understand the concern that customers will have as their bills increase due to the higher costs of fuel used to generate electricity,'' Stuart Solomon, president and chief operating officer of PSO, said in a news release.

``Much like gasoline, natural gas prices continue to rise and it is difficult to predict when they will stabilize or decrease.''

PSO, the state's second-largest electric utility, provides power to 505,000 customers in Oklahoma, including 285,000 in the Tulsa area.