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Bills weighing you down?

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Well, they may soon become a little more burdensome.

Most Anchorage utilities expect to raise their rates in 2007.

Enstar Natural Gas Co. expects its average monthly bill for a single-family home to increase about $30 next year.

In other words, if you're the typical customer who writes Enstar a check for $100 per month, get ready to write $130 instead.

Why the huge increase?

The biggest factor is the last year's rising cost of fuel.

"Even with the increase, we still have the cheapest gas in the country," said Enstar spokesman Curtis Thayer.

"It is a big increase. Don't get me wrong," he added.

The Chugach Electric Association and the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility also expect higher bills in 2007.

Take a deep breath. These rate increases are not as drastic as Enstar's.

Chugach Electric plans to increase its electricity rates for residential customers by about 2 percent -- an adjustment based on its rising cost of fuel.

The electric association's current average bill is roughly $100 a month. If regulators approve, this rate increase will add a couple dollars to the monthly residential bill.

Separately, Chugach has filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska asking to increase the cost of power it sells wholesale to other utilities, such as the Matanuska Electric Association, by about 5 percent.

In the same rate case, Chugach proposes a rate decrease that would reduce Anchorage residential bills by about 2 percent.

The rate case will likely take months or years to decide, according to Chugach.

Matanuska Electric Association will intervene in the case because it believes the rate proposal is unfair to Valley ratepayers, the nonprofit's spokeswoman Kim Floyd said.

On to water and sewer.

On an interim basis, AWWU proposes increasing its water and sewer rates by 7 percent and 9.5 percent in 2007. An average residential water bill would increase from $34.10 to $36.50 per month and the sewer bill would increase from $26.30 to $28.75.

But that's just temporary, while AWWU pursues bigger, permanent rate increases.

AWWU wants the commission to also approve permanent water and sewer rate increases of 14.5 percent and 13 percent, respectively. AWWU says the rate increases are needed to deal with escalating costs, such as employee retirement contributions and utility equipment expenditures.

The commission typically takes a long time to reach its decisions on permanent rate increases, so they probably wouldn't go into effect in 2007, said AWWU finance director Sharon Weddleton.

And here's some good news.

Though it won't totally smooth the dent in Anchorage pocketbooks from utility rate hikes, Municipal Light & Power anticipates a rate decrease in 2007 for its residential customers. ML&P's customers generally live north of Tudor Road and west of Boniface Parkway.

Ironically, its rate decrease is also linked to the rising price of fuel. The city-owned power company is part owner of the Beluga natural gas field.

"We sell some gas, and we are getting higher prices," said Bob Reagan, ML&P's supervisor of rates and tariffs.

The typical residential ML&P bill is now about $49.50 a month.

Reagan declined to predict a new average residential ML&P bill for 2007 but he said the average bill will likely be a "few percentage points lower."

Daily News reporter Elizabeth Bluemink can be reached at ebluemink@adn.com or 257-4317.