TRICO rate hike hits some hard

The standard residential rate actually went up Aug. 1, but most people wouldn't have seen the increase until the September bill, said Romi Carrell Wittman, a Trico spokeswoman.

The average increase was about 6.6 percent, she said.

Though the rate went from 9.6 cents to 12 cents per kilowatt hour, a separate cost adjustor that adds to the bill was decreased by half, amounting to a 6.6 percent increase overall, Carrell Wittman said.

Trico had "explosive growth" during the building boom years earlier this decade, she said, leading the company to build a lot of new infrastructure under the old rates and leaving it unable to cover its costs when things slowed down.

But it's been a hard hit for consumers to take in the current economy, said Picture Rocks resident Greg Mattison, who owns and rents several properties in Picture Rocks and Avra Valley.

One of his tenants, Dawn Patrick, had been paying around $300 per month in electricity and saw a jump to $414 last month, Patrick said.

Patrick's husband checked the insulation and duct work, as did Mattison, Mattison said, and they were unable to find anything that had suddenly gone wrong with the home itself that might have led to the higher bill.

The home is between 2,200 and 2,300 square feet.

Patrick said she was planning to have Trico do an energy audit and hoped to convince the company to change her electric meter, which she said is so old and sun-damaged that it's barely readable.

Trico can do energy audits over the phone, Carrell Wittman said.

It's a sort of checklist for people to go through to ensure they are doing everything they can to conserve electricity in their homes.

Trico also offers tools on its Web site to help people understand how much electricity they are using, and the cooperative has started offering energy-efficiency and conservation workshops, Carrell Wittman said.

Because Trico is a cooperative — meaning it is owned by its members and not by a corporation — "We cannot provide assistance for people on their electric bills. It's considered a conflict of interest," Carrell Wittman said.

But the company does refer people to county agencies that help people pay bills, and Trico offers payment plans as well.

Mattison said it's hard to tell whether he's lost tenants just because of their electric bills.

"I had to do an eviction because they couldn't pay the electric bill and the rent," he said. "I couldn't let them just pay the electric bill and live here for free continually."

He has done more evictions this year than in any of the 25 years he's been a landlord, he said.

He recently lost one family where the wife was a hotel housekeeper and the husband was a construction worker — both in industries that have been hit hard by the nation's economic downturn.

Many of his residents are in construction-related fields, he said. "It's been a terrible year for them."

Patrick's husband was out of work for a while, she said, "so this really hits hard."

The family — Patrick, her husband, her disabled daughter, two sons and a grandson — moved to Picture Rocks from Tucson about six months ago to save money, she said.

But that hasn't happened yet because of the electric bill, and if it remains high, the family will have to move again, she said.

Trico's new rates follow Tucson Electric Power Co.'s rate increase that kicked in last December after having no rate increases in more than a decade.

The average TEP residential rate was projected to go up about 6 percent, said TEP spokesman Joe Salkowski.

Because it's been less than a year and TEP introduced a new, tiered pricing structure, hard figures aren't available to compare with projections, he said, but the company hasn't seen anything that would lead it to change those numbers.

The average projected residential rate comes out to about 9.5 cents per kilowatt hour, he said.

High electric rates or no, moving is also an expensive proposition for those who can't pay their bills.

In the case of the housekeeper and construction worker, Mattison said, "My guess is they moved back in with family, which I've seen a lot of this year."

Need help paying?

If your Trico bill seems too high for you to pay it, you have options:

• Call Trico at 744-2944 and ask about payment plans, an energy audit or guidance to resources that can help with bill payment.

• Go online to www.trico.coop and click on "Home Energy Savings" for online calculators to help you find where you can conserve more energy in your home.