Power PUC delays rate hike Protesters hit meeting. Regulators will announce today who will pay the most. Businesses from computer chip makers to dairy farms hope state power regulators use that time to revise proposed new rates they claim are too hard on commercial customers. Consumer activists worry that the state Public Utilities Commission's one-day delay could mean even bigger rate hikes for residential customers. The PUC is scheduled to vote this afternoon.
Business groups hope the hunch is right.
PUC commissioner Jeff Brown said after Monday's meeting that he and other commissioners are trying to lower proposed industrial rates, but said that's tricky. Commissioner Carl Wood said today is the latest date the PUC can make its decision and still give Southern California Edison Co. and Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the state's two largest utilities, enough time to add the new rates to electric bills by June 1. Energy experts fear that's already too late for the price shock to spur vital conservation this summer and help stave off some of the 30 days of rolling blackouts predicted by managers of the state power grid. Similar rate hike plans authored by Lynch, the PUC's president, and by an administrative law judge would sock heavy users hard. Under the law judge's plan, residential customers who use the most electricity would see monthly bills rise an average of 34 percent.