Should Idaho Power get another $200 million from us? Not so fast | Opinion
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Idaho Power seeks a $200M rate hike, raising residential bills by 17%.
- Executive salaries have risen 28% since 2021, with CEO pay reaching $1M in 2024.
- Public Utilities Commission should scrutinize spending amid wider utility rate increases.
Idaho Power wants a rate hike of another $200 million on top of its $1.83 billion in annual revenue, according to a new application filed by the utility.
That’s a 13% increase and would result in a 17% increase in the monthly bill of a residential customer.
This comes at the same time Idaho Power is trying to pay rooftop solar power customers less money for the electricity they put back into the grid.
It also comes at the same time Intermountain Gas is seeking its own 9% rate increase, which would raise a residential customer’s bill about $5 per month.
Meanwhile, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission, which is the state regulatory body that will consider Idaho Power’s request for more money, just approved a 12% rate increase for Veolia Water.
We’re getting nickel-and-dimed to death out here.
I understand some of the requests that Idaho Power is making, such as increasing battery storage, upgrading, replacing and constructing new power lines and substations, and protecting against wildfires.
But I hope commissioners closely scrutinize one request, namely, $20 million for labor, “as the company hires additional employees and ensures it can retain the skilled workforce required to serve the growing region,” according to a press release from Idaho Power.
That’s all well and good, and it’s understandable that as Idaho grows, Idaho Power is going to need more workers to meet that demand. I’m all for hiring and giving raises to linemen and linewomen and front-line workers who are making sure the lights stay on.
Idaho Power executive salaries
But executive officer salaries are also part of this request, and from what I’ve seen, I think they’ve had enough.
I went through the utility’s annual reports filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, and found that executive officer salaries have gone up on average 9% per year since 2021. That equates to an average 28% increase from 2021 to 2024 for the top 13 executives listed on the annual report.
When you look at some of the salaries, that’s a big chunk of change.
For example, Idaho Power’s CEO Lisa Grow was making $775,000 in 2021 in base salary. Last year, she made $1 million, a 9% average annual increase and an overall 29% increase since 2021.
Idaho Power’s chief operating officer went from making $440,000 a year in 2021 to $585,000 last year, an average annual increase of 10% and a total increase of 32%.
How many of us are making 32% more than we were making in 2021? How many of us are making $145,000 more than we were making four years ago?
Keep in mind that the median household income in Idaho is about $74,000.
Idaho Power’s chief financial officer’s salary increased by twice that amount from 2021 to 2024, going from $420,000 to $568,000.
The senior vice president for public affairs’ salary went up by more than one median household income, from $350,000 to $435,000.
The lowest-paid executive officer listed in the FERC report, the vice president for corporate services and communications, makes $281,500, which is a nearly $50,000 raise in three years, or 21% more.
Keep in mind that these are just base salaries and don’t include incentive pay, such as stock options and bonuses, which are paid by shareholders and not ratepayers.
“Idaho Power has a rigorous and market-based compensation philosophy and methodology that is consistently followed and aligns with peer companies and general industry best practices for both employee and executive compensation,” according to an email from Idaho Power communications specialist Jordan Rodriguez.
Idaho’s low cost of electricity
And to be fair, Idaho (which also includes other utilities operating in Idaho) still has the second-lowest electricity cost in the nation, at 11.3 cents per kilowatt hour, tied with North Dakota and just behind first-place Utah, which is at 10.88 cents, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
By comparison, the cost of electricity in California is 32.73 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The PUC’s mission is “ensuring that the rates and policies established for utility services are fair, just, reasonable and nondiscriminatory; utility services are delivered safely, reliably, and efficiently” and to “keep customer rates low.”
I know “looking out for the little guy,” isn’t in that mission statement, but it should be, especially compared with a CEO who makes a million bucks a year.
Making investments in the long-term health and viability of the system is right and reasonable.
Padding the salaries of executive officers is not.
I hope the Idaho Public Utilities Commission takes that into account when considering this latest rate increase request from Idaho Power.
