Rhode Island Energy customers will help pay for a regional grid buildout in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts through the transmission charge already on their bills, with a rough 9.5 percent share of a $2.2 billion project. The exact rate impact won’t be known until the project is built and future rate filings are made.
The sentence that puts Rhode Island on the hook is seven words long. In a letter dated Tuesday, the New England States Committee on Electricity — the six-state body that speaks for governors and utility regulators in regional grid matters — told ISO New England it “did not propose an alternate cost allocation” for the region’s first competitively selected long-range transmission project. On Thursday, ISO-NE announced the allocation was finalized. The roughly $2.2 billion project will be paid for by electric customers in all six New England states, in proportion to each state’s share of peak demand.
None of the wires run through Rhode Island. The bill will…