OGE says storm repairs will reach $140 million

(OKLAHOMA CITY) - The January ice storm that snapped power poles and cut off electricity to thousands cost the state's largest utility about $140 million, company officials said. <br><br>OGE Energy

Friday, March 22nd 2002, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

(OKLAHOMA CITY) - The January ice storm that snapped power poles and cut off electricity to thousands cost the state's largest utility about $140 million, company officials said.

OGE Energy Corp. first estimated that cleaning up after the Jan. 30 storm would cost about $100 million, which was still the worst toll in state history.

The clean-up costs will be passed on to customers unless the federal government helps the company, an OGE Energy spokesman said Thursday. That would add several dollars to the average user's electricity bill for many years.

Repairing the 30,000-square-mile power system could cost even more than $140 million by the time clean-up is complete, said Paul Renfrow, OGE Energy's director of public affairs.

``It will probably be June before we've made all the repairs,'' Renfow said.

Investor-owed utilities such as OG&E generally are not eligible for disaster-relief help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, although municipal and co-op electric companies are eligible.

OG&E already has applied to FEMA for money and been rejected, Renfrow said.

But the company has since discovered that investor-owned utilities in the Northeast got federal money after a 1998 ice storm. That relief established a precedent, Renfrow said, and Oklahoma's congressional delegation is trying to get some federal help for state utilities.

``Everybody agrees it's a long shot, but it's worth trying,'' he said.

Renfrow said that without federal aid, OG&E customers will pay for the storm twice _ once because FEMA will use their federal tax dollars to pay for damage suffered by noninvestor-owed Oklahoma utilities, and then again through surcharges on their OG&E bills.

If there is no federal money, OG&E Energy will ask the Oklahoma Corporation Commission for a rate increase to cover the storm damage, Renfrow said.

The electric company self-insures, budgeting $5 million a year for storm damage, but that amount is inadequate to cover the recent damage.