Iowa rates for electricity and natural gas

This year, Alliant Energy’s Iowa customers should see a record amount of their energy come from the wind. For the last few years, we’ve been building new wind farms in Iowa. Two came online in 2019, and the next three will come online this year.

By the end of 2020, we will have added enough wind energy to power nearly half a million Iowa homes each year!

New renewable energy programs coming

Our customers will soon start seeing new options to meet their own sustainability goals. One of the new options includes a community solar program.

We expect to start taking applications for this program in Iowa early in 2020. We could start building the new solar garden for the program later in 2020.

Cost changes for 2020

Overall, the change in electric bills for residential customers from 2019 to 2020 will be small.

• The base rate for customers will go up slightly from 2019 to 2020.
• In 2020, customers will see a refund of $7.5 million. This will appear as a line item on the bill. Customers will also see $27.4 million of tax reform benefits flow back on the same line.
• In 2020, customers will see a new line item called Renewable Energy Rider. This includes costs from the wind farms currently under construction.
• The basic service charge for residential customers increases from $11.50 to $13 a month. General Service customers will see an increase from $19 to $20 a month.

In 2021, customers will see even more benefits as the company puts all its new wind farms online. This energy comes without a cost for fuel – so the Energy Cost line item should continue to decrease.

Learn more about the Regional Transmission Service line item on your bill.

In January 2020, Alliant Energy’s natural gas customers in Iowa should see a small change on their natural gas bills.

Timeline: In March 2019, we proposed an increase to the BASE RATE portion of gas bills for our customers. In the fall of 2019, we reached an agreement with different customer groups to have a smaller increase than originally proposed. In December 2019, the Iowa Utilities Board approved the agreement we reached.

Bill impact: The typical residential customer will see a $4 per month increase in the base rate portion of the bill — as compared to 2018 bills. However, a different portion of the bill has decreased. The Energy Efficiency Programs Charge decreased about $11 per month starting in 2019.

The end result: Overall, typical bills will be lower than 2018.

New natural gas tariffs available soon.

The different items on bills: Unlike electricity, we do not produce natural gas. The gas cost reflects the price to purchase the natural gas and has no markup from Alliant Energy.

For natural gas service, the base rate covers the cost of necessary improvements we make to deliver natural gas to our customers: replace aging materials, install new safety equipment, upgrade existing pipelines for more reliable and expanded service and add advanced metering. See where these line items appear on your bill here.