WARWICK – Electric bills for most Rhode Islanders are set to go up 22.8% in the coming weeks, reflecting what has become a normal increase in the price of power during the cold-weather months in New England.
The state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday approved the new pricing proposal from Rhode Island Energy that will see the residential electric rate climb to 16.4 cents per kilowatt hour for the period from Oct. 1 to March 31. That’s a big jump over the current rate of 10.4 cents per kwh that went into effect April 1.
Although in an apples-to-apples comparison to the past two winters, the rate is lower, it’s still much higher than the winter rates in every other year going back more than two decades and comes on the back of higher demand for natural gas as the weather cools.
For the average residential customer who uses 500 kwh a month, the average monthly bill would increase by $31.30 to $168.84. That’s higher than current bills but still about $8 less than last winter.
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