By JOSHUA ADAM HICKS

Staff Writer/Bellevue Reporter

Staff to the state Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) have urged the three-person panel to reject most of a proposed rate increase for Puget Sound Energy’s electric and natural-gas customers.

PSE wants permission to increase its annual revenues by more than $148 million for electric service and $27 million for natural-gas service.

UTC staff members have said the firm should be al-lowed revenue increases of only $6 million a year for electric and $7 million for gas. Commission staff have also recommended increases of 2 cents per month for the basic-service charge to electric customers and 19 cents per month for natural-gas customers.

Under these recommendations, according to the UTC, the average residential electric customer would see an increase of 30 cents each month, while the average natural-gas customer would pay an additional 64 cents per month.

PSE has also asked to increase its shareholder profit margin from 10.15 percent to 10.8 percent. The UTC is recommending that the rate be set at 10 percent.

The UTC board will make a final decision on PSE’s request for rate increases early next spring, with the changes expected to take effect around April 1.

The state Attorney Gen-eral’s Office Public Counsel Section, which represents residential and small-business customers in utility-rate cases, is calling PSE’s request “excessive and unsupported.”

“In this economy, PSE could be doing a better job of finding a way to live within its means,” said Public Counsel Chief Simon Fitch.

PSE has made 10 requests to increase rates in the past seven years, but the utility company also reduced its rates by around 18 percent in 2009.

Public Counsel made a list of recommendations to the UTC regarding PSE’s proposal. Among them are suggestions that the company credit ratepayers with $51 million in revenues from its sale of renewable-energy credits to California and eliminate the cost of a supplemental retirement plan for PSE’s highest paid officers and executives.

PSE says it requested the rate increase to recoup costs from investments made in 2008, such as a $240 million gas power plant in Cowlitz County and a $100 million expansion of a wind-generator facility near Ellensburg.

“The rate request seeks recovery of costs for new resources like that and for infrastructure — what we call pipes and wires — to serve new customers and improve reliability,” said PSE spokesperson Dorothy Bracken.

The UTC has received 131 public comments to date on PSE’s proposed rate increase, with none of the opinions in favor of it, 125 opposed and six undecided.

PSE customers will be able to comment about the proposed rate increases at three public meetings between Dec. 7 and Jan. 19. See wutc.wa.gov for locations.

Customers unable to attend those meeings can submit comments by mail at P.O. Box 47250, Olympia, Wash., 98504 — or by e-mail at comments@utc.wa.gov.

Or call 1-888-333-9882.