February 20, 2018 /
Fox 21 (Duluth)

By Haydee Clotter

DULUTH, Minn. – If you’re a customer of Minnesota Power your electricity bill might be going up a bit.

The Citizens Utility Board held a public hearing in Duluth to share the reasons behind the increase.

Right now customers are seeing a five percent interim rate increase.

Minnesota Power told us that increase will sit at about three and a half percent by the end of the year.

“Minnesota Power had asked for quite a substantial rate hike on top of that, but state regulators actually lowered it,” said Citizens Utility Board Executive Director Annie Levenson-Falk. “So when the final rates go into place later this year people will see their bills go down a little bit and they’ll see a little bit of a refund from the amount they overpaid for the past year.”

Minnesota Power says the rate increase will help pay for a variety of projects it’s working on including ones involving renewable energy.