Natural Gas Demand Driving 7% Winter Bill Increase

Rate changes effective with bills rendered November 1, 2018 will result in an overall bill increase of 7%, or $7.04 per month, for a typical residential member using NHEC’s Co-op Power energy service. The bill increase is the net result of rate changes to two charges on your bill – Co-op Power (the actual electricity used by those members not taking energy from competitive suppliers), and the Regional Access Charge, the cost charged to all members to access the regional transmission grid in order to get energy to the NHEC distribution system.

Approximately 99% of residential members take NHEC’s Co-op Power energy service. Most of these members will see an increase in the Co-op Power rate from 7.4 cents per kWh to 9.26 cents per kWh. The new Co-op Power rate is slightly higher than last year’s winter rate of 9.08 cents per kWh.

 The Regional Access Charge, which affects all members, is decreasing during the upcoming winter pe­riod.  Most members will see a decrease from 2.9 cents per kWh to 2.5 cents per kWh. That is lower than last year’s winter period rate of 2.8 cents per kWh.

 The increase in the Co-op Power rate is primarily due to the expected increase in the winter price of natural gas, which is used to generate nearly half the power produced in New England. Added demand for winter heating results in higher regional natural gas costs, which adds to the cost of wholesale power. The decrease in the Regional Access Charge rate is due to a decrease in the costs to deliver energy to the NHEC distribution system.

Also effective November 1, 2018 are changes to some fees for services. The changes were made to keep applicable fees in line with the cost of doing business. For a com­plete listing of NHEC’s rates and fees, please visit the Billing & Rates page.