Black Hills (BKH) Arms Request Rate Review to Recoup Investments
Black Hills Corp.’s BKH natural gas subsidiaries in Colorado and Iowa have filed rate review applications to recover investments made in their respective infrastructure systems. The units expect an annual revenue boost to $14.6 million and $8.3 million each after securing a regulatory nod for the rate hikes.
The adjusted rates will be effective first-quarter 2022 if approved by the commission. Rate revision allows companies to retrieve investments made to strengthen its infrastructure while funds generated through rate hikes enable companies to continue with their capital projects.
Capital Plans
Black Hills continues to invest in its infrastructure to increase the safety and reliability of its services and growing its systems along with meeting the requirements of state and federal regulations. This is reflected in the company’s performance during the extreme cold weather during the Winter Storm Uri in February. It expects to invest more than $3 billion during the 2021-2025 forecast period.
The company is planning to implement a five-year System Safety and Integrity Rider. This will not only help it invest consistently but also allow it to recover those funds and support its clean-energy goals. From July 2018 through 2020 end, the utility invested $144 million in replacing, enhancing and expanding its natural gas system in Colorado. Also, since the last rate review filing more than 10 years ago, its lowa business has invested $250 million.
Along with replacing and renovating pipeline materials, the company’s investments have reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than a one-third since 2005. Also, it plans to cut toxic emissions by 40% within 2030 and 70% by 2040 for electric operations and 50% by 2035 for its gas utilities, taking 2005 as the baseline.
Other utilities are also adopting measures to supply clean and reliable energy to their customers. Some of the companies like Duke Energy DUK, DTE Energy DTE and Xcel Energy XEL are planning to provide absolute clean energy by 2050.
Zacks Rank & Price Performance
In the past six months, shares of this currently Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 11.4%, outperforming the industry’s rise of 4.1%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Six Months Price Performance
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