Utah: Rocky Mountain Power backs off service-cut threats

Rocky Mountain Power has dropped plans to make sweeping customer-service cuts in protest of a rate denial, but the utility still needs more money to meet demand for electricity in Utah, the company's top executive said Wednesday.

The utility had said Sept. 2 it wasn't making enough money to keep up with demand for additional power. It said it would cut back overtime pay for linemen, slowing the response to some power outages. It also planned to eliminate "discretionary" maintenance. Ultimately, the utility said it might have to curtail electric service if the cost of buying power became "prohibitive."

But on Wednesday, instead of taking those steps, the president of Rocky Mountain Power said he was opening discussions with state officials and others to make a case for billions of dollars in electric-system improvements needed in Utah.

"We decided that we are not going to change our outage-response methods," Richard Walje told The Associated Press. "We have an obligation to serve. We recognize that."

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