Electricity rates in the territory could be on the rise if the NWT Public Utilities Board agrees to a request from the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC) to raise rates.
The government-owned company submitted an interim request to raise rates by 4.8 per cent in all communities starting June 1.
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The increase could mean an extra $10 for residential customer bills per month in the winter and $6 in the summer.
NTPC then plans to submit a general rate application which would see the cost of power increase by almost 13 per cent over three years.
Company spokesperson Pam Coulter says the rate would be applied over a multi-year period to avoid ‘a significant increase in a single year for power customers’.
If approved, estimated cost increases over the next three years would be 4.8 per cent, four percent and four percent respectively, resulting in a total increase of 12.8 per cent.
Back in 2012, NTPC filed a general rate increase – its first in five years – which resulted in an increase of 28 per cent between 2012 and 2015.
If this most recent application is approved, the cost of power in three years will be over 40 per cent higher than it was in 2012.
