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OG&E Asks Oklahoma Regulators for a Base Rate Increase

By · · Last verified · 2 min read

Oklahoma Gas & Electric filed a rate review this week asking to raise the average residential base rate by $23.88 a month. Nothing has been approved.

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Photo by Mikhail Abramkin on Unsplash

Oklahoma Gas & Electric (OG&E), which serves about 917,000 customers, has asked the Oklahoma Corporation Commission to raise its average residential base rate by $23.88 a month. The request is a proposal. Nothing has been approved, and your bill has not changed.

What OG&E filed

  • The ask: an average residential base rate increase of $23.88 per month. Your own number could differ depending on how much electricity you use.
  • What drives it: per the company, new generation, grid upgrades, community programs and technology. That includes replacing two 60-year-old natural gas units at its Horseshoe Lake plant with new turbines, and replacing other units at its Tinker Power Plant.
  • Already preapproved: the company says it received preapproval for those projects, and their costs haven’t been included in customer bills yet.
  • Customer assistance: OG&E also proposes expanding its senior discount and low-income program, plus a pilot to forgive past-due balances, a choose-your-own-due-date option and a pre-pay option.

What it is not

A base rate covers the cost of building and running the system. It is separate from the fuel charge, which changes quarterly. OG&E says the request does not include costs tied to the three Google data centers it agreed in April to power, because those customers are not yet using electricity from OG&E.

What happens next

Regulators will spend months reviewing OG&E’s finances. The final amount could be lower than the request. Separately, OG&E filed a large-load tariff (special rates for customers like data centers) in June, and a public hearing is expected in November. Customers can submit public comments on the rate case at any time.

If you have solar

OG&E’s filing as reported does not describe changes to solar or export compensation. Check the filing itself before assuming anything about payback.

Sources:

Frequently asked questions

Has OG&E's rate increase been approved?

No. OG&E filed a request with the Oklahoma Corporation Commission this week. Regulators will review it for months, and the final amount could be lower.

When could OG&E bills change?

KOSU reports customers could see bill changes as early as next spring if the request is approved in some form.

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