UniSource Energy Services customers will see their monthly bills go down starting this month because the "temporary surcharge " has come to an end, officials say.
Customers in Mojave and Santa Cruz counties can expect their average monthly bill to go down by about $19 because of the change on their next billing cycle. The change was effective Dec. 1, UniSource said.
UNS customers paid the additional charge since May 2023 to help the utility recover higher fuel costs , UniSource said. The higher costs were from additional expenses from previous years, "when extreme weather and other factors drove natural gas prices to record highs."
A surcharge paid by Tucson Electric Power customers since May 2023 has come to an end, causing the monthly utility bill to drop beginning this month.
"With those costs now recovered, UniSource has eliminated the surcharge," the company said in a news release. "The change is expected to reduce the average monthly bill for a typical residential customer using about 850 (kilowatt-hours) per month by approximately $19, though actual savings will vary based on usage."
The surcharge was based on usage, the company said.
TEP customers with average usage saw bill reductions of about $4 this summer for similar reasons, the utility announced earlier this year.
In March this year, the Arizona Corporation Commission approved a reduction in the Purchased Power and Fuel Adjustment Charge (PPFAC) from a "credit rate" of about one-tenth of a penny to more than one-half of a penny per kilowatt-hour.
TEP proposed a PPFAC in April 2022, and approved by the ACC shortly after, as part of the utility's plan to recover about $108 million for higher wholesale power and fuel costs, as previously reported. TEP proposed the increase to a surcharge used to offset higher-than-expected costs for power the utility buys on the wholesale market and for natural gas used to fuel its own power plants.
