“If Gulf is rendered unable to meet its obligations to the customers and shareholders due to inadequate rates, both stakeholder groups will suffer,” the document said. “The customers will suffer from less reliable service and eventually higher costs of electricity than would otherwise be the case, while the shareholders will suffer from an inadequate and confiscatory return on investment and will seek other places to invest their money.”
But the proposed increase has drawn objections from the state Office of Public Counsel, which represents consumers in utility cases, and other parties ranging from Walmart to the Sierra Club. The Office of Public Counsel and other opponents have argued, in part, that Gulf’s base rates should decrease by about $2 million — not increase.
“The ultimate issue to be addressed by the (Public Service Commission) in this proceeding is whether Gulf Power Company needs any additional revenues in order to provide safe, adequate, reliable service, to recover its legitimate costs of providing such service, and to have an opportunity to earn a fair and reasonable return on its legitimate investment in assets used and useful in serving Gulf’s retail customers,” Walmart said in a filing last month. “The evidence offered by intervenor parties … shows that, in total, the answer to this question is that Gulf can indeed fulfill its duty to provide safe, adequate, reliable service with no rate increase at all and probably with a modest overall rate reduction of approximately $2 million per year.”
