Electric Bills to Decline in Cheshire

State regulators have approved new electric rates for 2012, and the early report says a typical homeowner will pay about $9 less per month.

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) today finalized reduced rates for Standard Service customers of Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and United Illuminating (UI).

 As a result of PURA’s action, effective January 1, 2012:

• CL&P Residential Standard Service rate will be 16.352 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).  This represents a decline of 1.341 cents kWh from the 2011 rates and a two-year decline of 2.667 cents kWh. 
• UI’s Residential Standard Service rate will be 21.5704 cents kWh.  This represents a decline of 1.9932 cents kWh from the 2011 rates and a two-year decline of 2.3476 cents kWh.

With the new Standard Service rates, the average residential customers of CL&P using 700 kW/h a month will save $9.39 per month compared to 2011 and $18.67 per month compared to 2010.  The savings for the average UI customer will be $13.96 per month compared to 2011 and $16.44 per month compared to 2010.

The 2012 rates were completed after PURA acted today to finalize the various components that make up electric bills including Generation, Distribution, Transmission, Public Benefit, Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy charges.

 In November, PURA had acted to approve the Generation Service Charge which is the single largest component of monthly electric bills and makes up about half of monthly charges. 

 The PURA action in November reduced Generate Rates by 1.2 cents kWh for CL&P residential Standard Service customers and 1.8 cents kWh for UI residential Standard Service customers.

 Approximately 53% of the Connecticut’s 1.5 million residential customers take standard service generation from CL&P and UI. The remaining residential customers have opted to have their electricity provided by other approved electric suppliers, which can further reduce generation rates for consumers.