While both United Illuminating and Eversource have announced their standard service supply rate filings – which they both say will mean lower electricity bills over what customers paid over the same period last year – the companies and the office of Consumer Counsel are reminding customers that they can consider third-party suppliers as a more affordable option.
United Illuminating last week filed their standard service supply rate with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority for the 2024 winter season – under which UI customers will pay 17.06 cents per kilowatt-hour in supply charges on their monthly electric bill from January 1 through June 30, 2024.
UI representatives say this is close to a 20% decrease and $34 in monthly savings compared to the same period last year for the average customer.
Eversource, meanwhile, filed new standard service rates that would be a 39% decrease over last winter. The new Standard Service rate, if PURA approves, for residential customers will be 14.71 cents per kWh – lower than last winter’s supply rate of 24.17 cents per kWh, but slightly higher than the current summer rate of 13.82 cents per kWh.
An Eversource residential electric customer who uses 700 kilowatt hours of power each month could see an increase of approximately 3.2% over their current monthly bill – approximately $6.24 per month – on the supply portion of the bill.
If approved by PURA, the new standard service rates will take effect from January 1 to June 30, 2024.
Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said that her office is pleased to see that rates will be lower than last winter, even if they are higher than she would like.
Coleman and UI and Eversource representatives are in agreement that rates are higher in winter months than summer months due to the price of natural gas, which some customers use for heating. Natural gas is also used for generating electricity.
UI and Eversource procure electricity from the companies who generate it and pass it to the customers with no markup.
“I am pleased that both energy market stability and some procurement process changes that my team advocated for and were ultimately implemented resulted in lower bids in the procurement process,” Coleman said in a prepared statement. “As a state and across the region, there is more work to do in the move toward energy independence to get us to a place where we are no longer beholden to global market whims.”
Electricity supply rates change twice per year, on January 1 and July 1.
To look at other suppliers besides UI and Eversource, customers can go to the EnergizeCT rate board to compare.
UI customers who need financial assistance can go to www.uinet.com/HelpWithBill while Eversource customers can look up Eversource.com/Billhelp or call 800-286-2828.
