Liberty may raise rates more than 17%

Liberty Utilities customers may find their bills going up 17.34 percent starting Jan. 1.

The electric company that serves the California side of the Lake Tahoe Basin, Truckee, Alpine County and other areas of the state has filed for a rate increase with the California Public Utilities Commission.

Liberty wants to increase its revenue by $13.571 million to recover costs associated with the distribution of power to its 49,000 customers.

“The increase is necessary to continue Liberty’s focus on delivering safe and reliable electric service to its customers. Components of the increase include vegetation management (trimming trees and branches from infrastructure that may cause outages), compliance with California’s requirements related to drought-related fire prevention along utility power lines, additional funding for the existing energy efficiency programs/incentives and funding to implement a new solar incentive program, as well as maintenance and upgrades to the existing electrical system,” Liberty said in a statement.

The last general rate case increase was 4.97 percent, which took effect Jan. 1, 2013.

The CPUC filing is online.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report