NSTAR slashing rates for largest customers

BOSTON – NSTAR Inc. (NYSE: NST), the Bay State’s largest investor-owned natural gas and electric utility, is requesting sharp cuts in the price of electricity for its largest commercial and industrial customers.
“These lower electricity prices couldn’t come at a better time for our local businesses who buy their power supply from us,” said NSTAR President and CEO Thomas J. May. “Many of these companies are struggling in this current economic climate, and it’s gratifying to be able to pass along such significant savings at this crucial time.”
New Bedford-area customers using more than 25,000 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per month would see their rates drop 32 percent to 8.134 cents per kWh from the current 11.963 cents, NSTAR spokesman Michael Durand told PBN today.
For a medium-sized commercial customer using just 25,000 kWh – “and some of them use 10 times that,” Durand said – that would translate to monthly savings of about $975.
Boston-area NSTAR customers using more than 25,000 kWh per month would see their rates drop 25.9 percent to 7.906 cents per kWh from the current 10.673 cents, the company said.
“More than a thousand commercial and industrial customers in NSTAR’s service territory will benefit from these price cuts,” the utility said. It credited the recent decline in prices for the oil and natural gas it uses to generate electricity.
Under state law, NSTAR buys electricity through a competitive bidding process on behalf of customers, and passes that cost directly to customers. Like other regulated distribution companies, it makes its profit not from energy charges but from infrastructure and distribution fees.
If approved by the Mass. Department of Public Utilities, the cuts will take effect April 1.
NSTAR Inc. (NYSE: NST) – a natural gas and electric utility with some non-utility operations – posted assets of about $3.3 billion as of Dec. 31. It serves about 1.1 million electric and 300,000 natural gas customers in New Bedford, Dartmouth, Fairhaven and other portions of eastern and central Massachusetts. Additional information is available at www.nstar.com.