Ongoing investments Minnesota Power Company of Duluth has announced its intention to file a request with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (MPUC) before the end of the year to increase base electric retail rates.

Minnesota Power serves electric customers in Aldrich, Motley and Pillager, as well as providing transmission lines for providing wholesale electric power to Staples.

Minnesota Power previously filed for a rate increase in May 2008, the first increase to its base rates in 14 years. Final rates for the 2008 rate request are expected to take effect this fall. At the time of last year's filing, the company indicated it was the first in a series of expected rate

increases.

CEO Don Shippar said "We've invested nearly one

billion dollars in the electric system over the past three years to ensure we provide the safe and reliable service our customers expect while at the same time delivering additional sources of clean energy policy makers have mandated." have included the acquisition of an approximately $80 million direct current (DC) transmission line that will deliver wind energy from the company's growing number of wind generation facilities in North Dakota to the company's customers in Minnesota.

The company is also investing more than $300 million in a series of retrofi t projects at the company's largest generating facility, Clay Boswell Energy Center in Cohasset.

The official rate request will not be filed until later this year, but officials felt it was important to give customers notice now of the increased rates in 2010, Shippar said.

MP has reduced costs in other areas, including staff reductions and pay freezes.

More details about Minnesota Power's rate request, including public hearing dates, will be made available once the request is filed with the MPUC later this year. If approved by the commission, interim rates would go into effect in early 2010 with final rates being implemented in the fourth quarter of 2010.