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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife residents can expect their power bills to go up by 10 per cent with NWT Power Corporation's rate riders set to go through on Saturday.

In reviewing the power corporation's general rate application, the Public Utilities Board directed the corporation to implement shortfall riders - or tacked-on rates - to recover lost revenues on Monday.

The regulating board told the power corporation to go back and adjust a portion of its application that takes into account recent lower fuel prices.

Joe Acorn, chairman of the utility board, said once the corporation provides the new numbers, the application will be approved tomorrow.

The increases are territory-wide and Yellowknife customers can expect a significant hike in their power bills.

"Yellowknifers - based on 700 kilowatt usages - will see an increase of approximately $10 per month to their bills," said Vaughn Slade, communications and customer service co-ordinator with the NWT Power Corporation.

This amounts to more than $120 annually.

Yellowknifers, however, will be given a brief one-month reprieve on the increased rates.

The power corporation sells power generated from the Snare and Bluefish hydro stations and the Jackfish Lake diesel substation to Northland Utilities for 14.02 cents per kilowatt hour. The increases pending approval tomorrow would raise rates to 15.45 cents per kilowatt hour - about a 10 per cent increase.

Northland Utilities then sells power service to Yellowknifers.

Any increased rates from the power corporation will be passed on to customers through the utility company, said Albert Bouchard, operational superintendent with the Northland Utilities.

He said once the power corporation's rate increases come into effect, the utility company would have to readjust and re-file their numbers, which would take about a month.

"At this time, I would say the first cycle of December, which would be Dec. 1. That's when they would start coming into effect," said Bouchard.

Northland Utilities has roughly 7,000 residential and 1,000 commercial accounts in the city.

MLAs recently spent an entire day of session grilling Floyd Roland, premier and minister responsible for the corporation, about the rate increases and their effect on the high cost of living.

Kam Lake MLA Dave Ramsay spoke about the need for the government to restore public faith in the power corporation. He said constituents find it hard to understand that rates are going up while power usage and fuel prices have recently dropped.

Yellowknife MLAs Bob Bromley, Glen Abernethy and Robert Hawkins called for reviews or restructuring of the corporation.

Roland said a minister's energy committee was performing a review of the corporation, looking at its "structure, the rates, delivery and energy generation."

The power corporation's general rate application requested riders to recover shortfalls of $8.3 million from the past two years, due to increases in fuel prices and operating costs.

The riders will be in effect for a 17-month period, said Slade.

He said the riders were required to collect revenue for money already spent providing power service to customers.

Slade said he could not comment on what would happen after the 17-month period due to the unpredictability of fuel prices.

The power corporation last filed a general rate application in May 2001.

Northland Utilities also has its own general rate application on the table, which will likely lead to even higher electricity rates but by how much remains to be seen.