Utilities board approves Alliant rate hike

The Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) ruled in January that Alliant Energy may raise its customer electric rates, though not by as much as the utility requested.

The decision was handed down on Jan. 8, and it implements a partial settlement between Alliant Energy and several other parties that was reached in October 2019. Alliant Energy originally requested an increase of $203.6 million, but the settlement lowered that to $127 million.

According to Alliant Energy spokesperson Justin Foss, the net effect this order will have on Alliant's customers is not yet known, because while customers will have to pay higher base rates and a higher basic service charge, they'll also be receiving money as part of a refund the Iowa Utilities Board has ordered. The refund is for $7.5 million, which is to reimburse customers for the higher interim rates they paid while the Iowa Utilities Board was deliberating on the matter.

The monthly customer charge will rise from $11.50 to $13 for residential customers, and from $19 to $20 for general service customers.

The ruling also set a monthly fee of $4.06 for customers who opt-out of having a 'smart” meter, which communicates usage data via radio frequency to a central hub. Additionally, customers can request at no cost a reduced-pulse meter that transmits usage data only once at the end of every month. Initially, Alliant Energy argued that customers should not be able to keep analog meters at all, and if they opted to have a non-transmitting digital meter, the opt-out fee would be $15 a month.

Alliant Energy senior communications partner Annemarie Newman said fewer than 1 percent of the company's Iowa customers have chosen to opt out of smart meters, but the figure is much higher in Fairfield, where 20 percent of households (1,637) have chosen to forego the meters in favor of analog. Twenty-three customers in Washington County and another eight in Henry County opted out of smart meters.

Fairfield attorney Jay Marcus, who represents Jon Lipman of Maharishi Architecture and Planning, has filed several briefs in this case arguing on behalf of customers wishing to opt out of smart meters. He was pleased to learn the board agreed to allow customers to opt out, and to continue using their analog meters as long as they continue to work.

Fairfield residents played a major role in this case. Of the nine witnesses who argued against smart meters at the IUB's hearings in late 2018, seven came from Fairfield.

'Our community did a great job of first, lowering the fees to opt out, and to increase the options available,” Marcus said. 'People can now have a smart meter, or put it in a reduced transmission mode, or opt out and keep their analog meter for a good long time, because they're accurate meters. There aren't many states that offer those options.”

Marcus said his work in this case is not done. He still is filing briefs arguing for even more access to analog meters. For instance, Alliant Energy has 160,000 analog meters in storage, and Marcus wants customers to be given the choice of replacing a malfunctioning analog meter with one of those working analog meters in storage. Under the current rules, if a customer's analog meter fails, it must be replaced with a digital meter. Alliant Energy has resisted Marcus's motion.

Lipman's company Maharishi Architecture and Planning got involved in the case because it designs houses in accordance with the principles of Maharishi Vastu Architecture, which seeks to limit the electromagnetic frequencies - like those of smart meters - that enter a home.

The Iowa Utilities Board admonished Alliant for the way in which it rolled out smart meters in 2019, and stated in a news release that the utility was guilty of a 'lack of transparency and misrepresentation” in reference to a 2018 vote in the city of Decorah to municipalize its electric utility. As a result, the Iowa Utilities Board told Alliant it will continue to monitor and review the company's management efficiency practices.

Wind farms

Though it wasn't part of this ruling, Foss said that the company's recent investments in renewable energy will lower customers' electricity bills to partly offset the rise in the base rate and basic service charge. Alliant has built wind farms throughout Iowa, mostly on the western side of the state where the winds are strongest. As those come online in 2020 and beyond, Alliant will be able to save money on fuel, since the 'fuel” is free from Mother Nature, and can pass on those savings to customers.

At the same time, Alliant must recoup the cost of those wind farms. Thanks to the IUB's ruling, customers will see a renewable energy line item on their bill indicating how much they are paying for renewable energy capital projects.

In 2005, Alliant was generating just 5% of its energy from renewable sources, but it expects that number to climb to 33% by 2024.

Foss said that another piece of good news is that Alliant will receive a tax refund of $24 million, which it's passing along to its customers. He said that changes in tax rules allowed the company to save that much money, which it had already collected from customers. Since Alliant doesn't owe the money to the government, it's returning it to the customers.