Utah Power's customers, however, will see only a slight 1 percent increase beginning with the next bill they receive because they already are paying the utility at a rate that will allow it to collect most of the $140 million by April 2004.

The PSC in November gave Utah Power permission to keep a $40.5 million refund it owed its customers from its last rate case. At the same time, the PSC allowed the utility to continue to overcharge at the higher rate -- the rate that created the need for a refund in the first place -- until several cases pending before the commission were settled.

The $140 million increase represents a settlement of those three cases hammered out by the company, the Committee of Consumer Services, the Division of Public Utilities and a number of Utah's large industrial electricity users. The PSC heard arguments for and against the deal April 17.

Utah Power representatives could not be reached for comment.

In approving the settlement, the PSC called the agreement a "fair compromise of diverse interests that results in just and reasonable rates for customers."

It also noted the $140 million award was close to the result that could have occurred if the three cases had been fully litigated. PSC Chairman Stephen Mecham pointed out rates will go down in 2004 by 3.5 percent if no other rate cases occur.

PacifiCorp, the parent company of Utah Power, filed the three cases in response to the high-priced wholesale electricity power market that erupted in 2000 and 2001. Although the Committee of Consumer Services, which is charged with representing the interests of consumers in utility rate cases, supported the settlement, another group of consumer advocates opposed the deal.

The Utah Ratepayer Alliance, made up of the Salt Lake Community Action Program, the Crossroads Urban Center and Utah Legislative Watch, argued the settlement would allow the utility to recover a big portion of the cost of buying the extra electricity without ever establishing that it was acting responsibly.

Claire Geddes of Utah Legislative Watch, however, said she was not surprised by the PSC ruling.

"The fate [of Utah's consumers] was pretty much sealed when the Committee of Consumer Services signed on to the agreement," she said. "But in my opinion it is still not a good deal for residential customers."

In arguing for the agreement in mid-April, PacifiCorp's vice president of regulation D. Douglas Larson contended the settlement would ask PacifiCorp's Utah customer to cover 68 percent of the additional power costs, while shareholders of ScottishPower, which owns PacifiCorp, would pick up the rest.

The PSC ruling that gave PacifiCorp the $140 million rate increase came just hours after the Glasgow, Scotland-based ScottishPower reported that its fourth-quarter profit jumped 68 percent.