The Government of Saskatchewan has accepted a 3.5 per cent rate increase for SaskPower that will come into effect March 1, 2018.
The rate increase will be approximately four dollars on monthly residential power bills. Spokesperson for SaskPower Jonathan Tremblay says the increase will allow the company to keep up with the high demands of power.
“That will allow us to keep investing in the grid. It’s a lot of maintenance work, but it’s also growing the power grid since we keep seeing record breaking demands year after year for the past few years. So we need to keep growing with the province and this will help us do that.”
In its rate application, SaskPower outlined that the rate increase will modernize the grid, reduce duration of power outages and help them reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent by 2030.
SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh said that they plan to reduce its spending by an additional $142 million in the next three years using various restraint measures.
The original request by SaskPower for a rate increase was 5 per cent.