UI, Eversource Set New Electric Rates - CT News Junkie
UI, Eversource Set New Electric Rates | CT News Junkie
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The summer energy supply rate will drop for customers of both United Illuminating and Eversource, but Eversource customers will see an overall increase in their total bills based on costs associated with state-required programs and policies for public utilities.
Pending approval by the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURA), customers of United Illuminating will see a monthly decrease in their bills of around $1.55 while Eversource customers’ energy rates will decrease from 14.71 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) to 8.99 cents per kWh.
Energy supply rates change twice a year, on Jan. 1 and July 1. Eversource and UI can only charge customers what it pays to generators to produce power for customers.
Residential customers are seeing increases to the “Public Benefits” portion of their bills, which includes costs mandated by the state and federal government such as financial assistance and energy efficiency programs and purchasing renewable and carbon-free electricity.
Eversource said their residential electric customers will see an increase of nearly $48 per month for 10 months to this portion of their bill. According to a statement issued by Eversource, residential customers who take Standard Service from Eversource, using an average of 700 kWh per month, will see a net increase of approximately $8, or 4%, on their total bill.
“A lower price for energy is certainly good news for customers, and we’re glad it will help to largely offset an increase in the Public Benefits portion of the bill covering the cost to run state-mandated programs,” said Steve Sullivan, Eversource’s President of Electric Operations in Connecticut. “Unfortunately, volatility in customer bills remains an issue, and we’re committed to helping to mitigate those impacts for customers, which is why we’ve proactively proposed solutions that would create rate stability to help businesses and families plan their budgets.”
For UI’s part, company representatives said the Public Benefits charge is expected to increase from 1.73 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6.18 cents per kilowatt hour. This 257% increase is mostly to pay for the fixed-price power purchase agreements (PPAs) with Millstone and Seabrook nuclear power plants as well as for the financial hardship assistance programs, according to UI.
Between the supply rate decrease and the Public Benefits charge increase, UI estimates that their residential customers will end up with a 0.64 percent (or $1.55) savings in their monthy bills.
“While Connecticut’s electric distribution companies, including UI, do not control supply rates or the Public Benefits charge, we have been concerned since February, when our analysis of the cost impacts of policymakers’ priorities and programs began, that our customers would see a significantly higher bill when those increases took effect,” said Frank Reynolds, President & CEO of UI. “Thankfully, the Public Benefits cost increases were mitigated entirely by a drop in Supply rates, so UI residential customers will see very little change in their total electric bill beginning July 1 and continuing through the end of the year.”
State Sen. Norm Needleman, an Essex Democrat who co-chairs the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee, said the initiatives that led to the increases to the Public Benefits portion of Eversource and UI bills were the result of the legislature looking after its citizens.
“This rate adjustment comes after Eversource received a significant rate increase earlier this spring, much of the cost related to the Millstone agreement of 2018 and 2019, which was bipartisan legislation that preserved state jobs and zero-carbon energy,” Needleman said. “Pandemic-related shutoff prevention programs only represent about a quarter of those increases, and our state has done what it should to protect residents in need and mitigate the impacts of changing weather systems.”
Residents can shop for lower rates and opt for a third-party electricity supplier by going to EnergizeCT.com.
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