Garner Mitchell, SaskPower's acting president, says the provincial Crown corporation needs money to pay for expensive system upgrades. (CBC)

SaskPower wants more money from its customers, announcing Thursday that it has applied for a rate increase amounting to about 7.5 per cent for a typical residential customer.

If approved, the increase would take effect Aug. 1, barely 14 months after the last rate hike.

On June 1, 2009, SaskPower rates rose 8.5 per cent for all its customers.

Thursday's announcement of rate hikes noted that a typical farm customer's electricity bill would rise 8.8 per cent.

SaskPower said residential customers would see electric bills go up $6 per month. Farm customers' bill would go up $16 per month.

The utility, a Crown corporation owned by the province, said it needs the money to pay for expensive upgrades to its power generating and distribution systems.

"The majority of SaskPower's generation, transmission and distribution system was built 30 — 50 years ago," the company said in a news release. "New equipment costs much more."

"We were very successful in getting as much life out of the existing generation fleet that we could," Garner Mitchell, the acting president of SaskPower, told reporters at a Regina news conference. "But now with the growth and just simply the age of the equipment, now is the time we have to rebuild. Otherwise everything will start to degrade."

Company officials added that customers should prepare themselves for more rate increases of a similar magnitude, possibly every year. In the past, rate hikes have been more sporadic and were about four or five per cent.

The proposed rates will be scrutinized by a review panel, which makes recommendations to the provincial cabinet.

The final say on rates rests with the government.