El Paso Electric Statement on 2021 Rate Application Settlement

Agreed decrease in proposed rates reflects EPE’s continued support  for the community

EL PASO, Texas – El Paso Electric (EPE) President and CEO Kelly A. Tomblin issues the following statement regarding the settlement agreement reached with the City of El Paso and all other parties on the proposed rate review filed June 1, 2021:

“We are pleased to reach a settlement with the City of El Paso and all other parties to our required 2021 base rate application.  While we still believe that the nearly $1B in investments we made in our infrastructure since 2017 was necessary for our customers, we also understand that the increase we proposed would have been a burden for our customers who are dealing with a multitude of cost increases in other areas of their lives, including increased taxes, inflation and higher interest rates. At EPE, we are focused on long-term economic development and we understand that the best thing for our customers, our Company and our community is to maintain affordability.  With the settlement, which is pending approval from the PUCT, the agreed rate increase would be lowered to less than 2% which is less than $2 for a typical Texas residential customer who uses an average 680 kWh per month.

We are fully committed and excited to continue our work to transform the energy landscape through investments in new technologies and resilient infrastructure. This transformation includes developing a self-healing smart grid, adding more renewable energy, providing advanced communications and offering energy solutions to grow our current customers and attract new ones to our region.  We look forward to continuing to work with valued partners like the City of El Paso to underscore the need for continued infrastructure investment like those that prevented our Region from experiencing the reliability challenges endured throughout the rest of Texas. Since 2017, our investments included:

In the years to come, we will continue to provide this level of investment to support our cutomers’ needs and support our growing economy.”