Opinion ID: 1792724
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Impact on Ratepayers

Text: MUD argues that the district court wrongly determined that it failed to consider the impact on ratepayers. MUD argues that any rate increase would be offset by increased reliability and improvement to its system and that the extension would resolve the safety and capacity issues at the Center Street TBS. According to MUD, it would cost more to make changes at the Center Street TBS to fix the safety and capacity concerns. Because the Fairview TBS was designed to accommodate projected use 5 years into the future, the court found that the primary purpose of the Fairview TBS was to accommodate future growth that could affect ratepayers. In addition, the court found that although the Fairview TBS was developed to meet future capacity, the evidence failed to show when it would require full capacity. The court found that if Northern were successful in its application to the FERC to recover the $4.35 million paid to MUD under the contribution agreement, a percentage of those costs would be passed to MUD and Aquila ratepayers. Likewise, it found that ratepayers would be responsible for the cost of MUD's reimbursement to Northern. As previously stated, MUD failed to consider the potential effect on ratepayers. The record reflects that the Fairview TBS was constructed with growth in mind and is designed to be oversized for at least 5 years. Although MUD states that it needs to consider future customers and oversizes TBS's to cover for loss of service, MUD was still required to consider the effect of such items on ratepayers. In addition, such determinations were required before MUD undertook construction. Despite MUD's arguments that it determined there was no effect on ratepayers, the record supports the court's determinations that the extension's purpose was to accommodate MUD's growth and that how the growth impacted its ratepayers was not properly considered. Accordingly, we find there was competent evidence to support the court's factual findings concerning the impact on ratepayers.