Rhode Island Energy has told state regulators exactly how it will return roughly $175 million to its customers, and the mechanics are simpler than most utility refunds: a flat line on the bill, no form, no application. Electric accounts are scheduled to start seeing $14.51 a month with the October billing cycle, while gas accounts start seeing $51.55 a month in December. The two credits run on different clocks and for different lengths, which is where most of the confusion is likely to start.
What the September 4 tariff filing says about the electric credit
The controlling document is the Hold Harmless Bill Credit Tariff compliance filing that The Narragansett Electric Company, doing business as Rhode Island Energy, submitted to the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission on September 4, 2026 in Docket 25-45-GE. It was signed by Jeremy Licht, Assistant General Counsel for PPL Services Corporation, the parent company’s service arm. The electric tariff says it applies to “each active electric distribution customer account that is issued a bill during the months specified.”
The credit itself is labeled a “miscellaneous bill credit” of $14.51 per account. The filing applies it to the billing periods of October, November and December 2026, then every month from January through September 2027. That is twelve billing periods, so the credit adds up to $174.12 per active electric account across the full window. The filing puts the electric total at $91,081,790.
The amount does not scale with usage. A household that burns very little power and one that runs electric heat in January both receive the same $14.51, because the filing sets a fixed figure per account rather than a rate per kilowatt-hour.
The gas credit starts two months later and ends in April
The gas tariff uses the same structure with a different calendar. A miscellaneous bill credit of $51.55 is applied to each active gas distribution account in the billing periods of December 2026 and January, February, March and April 2027, according to the same filing. Five billing periods at $51.55 comes to $257.75 per active gas account over the winter…