Rocky Mountain Power asks Utah PSC to approve 2023 wildfire mitigation plan and recover $21 million in deferred costs

Rocky Mountain Power asked the Utah Public Service Commission on the record to approve its revised 2023 Wildland Fire Protection Plan, include wildfire-mitigation costs in the 2025 test‑year base rates and allow recovery of $21,000,000 in deferred mitigation costs recorded for 2021–2023.

The company says its plan meets Utah’s Wildland Fire Planning and Cost Recovery Act and that the calculation of costs for 2025 should be reflected in rates that become effective April 26, 2025. “Rocky Mountain Power seeks Commission approval of several items related to its wildfire mitigation plans,” Rocky Mountain Power senior vice president of regulation Joelle Stewart said in sworn testimony admitted to the record.

Why it matters: the requests would shift sizable wildfire‑mitigation spending into customer rates and set the baseline the Commission will use to measure future incremental mitigation costs. Intervenors including the Utah Office of Consumer Services and the Division of Public Utilities argued the company has not provided the kind of quantitative cost–benefit or risk‑spend efficiency (RSE) analysis some parties and the Commission say is needed to demonstrate that costs are appropriately balanced against risk reductions.

What Rocky Mountain told the Commission - The company’s witnesses summarized the major components it wants the Commission to accept: approval of the revised 2023 plan; inclusion in base rates of mitigation costs for the 2025 test year; and approval to recover $21,000,000 in costs deferred for calendar years 2021–2023 over 12 months through Schedule 97 (the wildfire mitigation balancing account, WBA). In her summary, Stewart also recommended a separate docket to develop methods for quantitative evaluation of costs and risk for future plans. - Josh Jones, vice…