Narragansett Electric made a rate filing at RIPUC on Nov. 23 proposing a substantial decrease in rates. The reduction relates to three components of the company’s rates. The company
proposed to reduce the standard offer rate from 5.5¢ per kWh to 4.662¢ per kWh. The transmission
component of the rates would be lowered by 0.347¢ per kWh. Finally, the company proposed a slight reduction in its transition charge from 0.988¢ per kWh to 0.896¢ per kWh. On a per kWh basis, this adds up to a total reduction of 1.277¢ per kWh for all standard offer and residential customers, and a
reduction of 0.439¢ per kWh for non-residential customers not on the standard offer.
These rate changes equate to a 10.9% decrease in the total bill of a typical residential customer consuming 500 kWh per month, or $6.66 per month, including the effects of gross receipts taxes. With this rate reduction, the total bill of a typical residential customer will be $54.36. As a result, the total bill of a typical residential customer will be $7.56 less per month than the total bill of a typical residential customer taking service from Narragansett Electric in 1997, or 12.2% less.
According to Narragansett Electric, motivating the rate decrease are dramatically lower oil and
natural gas prices and lower transmission expenses, driven in part by lower congestion costs.
