Black Hills Corp. is proposing a rate increase for electric service for residential and commercial customers related to a recently approved energy-efficiency program.

South Dakota-based Black Hills, which operates the Colorado Electric Utility Company LP in around Pueblo, Cañon City and Rocky Ford, submitted a demand-side management cost adjustment request of 2.54 percent.

Under the proposal, the typical residential customer’s electric bill would increase by 28 cents per month for the use of 600 kilowatt-hours.

The average small-business customer, using 2,300 kilowatt-hours, likely would see an increase of $1.06 per month, Black Hills wrote in an advice letter submitted Dec. 29 to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission.

If the PUC approves the proposal this month, the rate increases would take effect Feb. 1, commission spokesman Terry Bote said.

The proposal follows the PUC’s approval of Black Hills’ 2016-18 demand-side management plan. The three-year program will try to boost consumer energy-efficiency with measures such as distributing LED bulbs to low-income customers, providing energy savings kits to schools, and removing LEED-certification building requirements from its commercial energy savings program to increase participation rates.

The PUC-approved agreement included several items supported by organizations such as the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project.

The programs approved in the three-year plan, which has a budget of $18.6 million, have a cost-benefit ratio that exceeds one, which means that for every dollar spent, more than one dollar of customer benefits will accrue, Bote said.

Alicia Wallace: 303-954-1939, awallace@denverpost.com or @aliciawallace