Unitil electric rates to rise $42 per month

HAMPTON — Local Unitil customers will see substantial increases in their electricity bills this December, as company officials say a market rate spike will cause the average residential customer’s monthly bill to jump $42.

Unitil Media Relations Manager Alec O’Meara said come Dec. 1 the company’s supply rate, which he said is set by the market through a "highly regulated" bidding process, will increase from 8.4 cents to 15.5 cents per kilowatt hour.

That equates to a roughly $42 increase for every 600 kilowatt hours of use, which is the average monthly residential use on the Seacoast. O’Meara said the supply rate is separate from Unitil’s distribution rate, which covers Unitil’s infrastructure and personnel costs, and is out of his company’s hands.

"This is not something we have control over," said O’Meara. "We are required to follow this bid process. We don’t want this. No utility wants to see this."

In recent weeks, a number of utilities throughout New Hampshire, Maine and New England have announced impending rate hikes due to the increased demand for natural gas for heat in the winter.

Marcia Bloomberg, a spokeswoman for ISO New England, said more and more people are using natural gas to heat their homes because it is typically cheaper than other fuels.

Unitil and other utility companies that don’t own their own power generators and plants are affected by this because more than half of New England’s electricity is generated by natural gas and heating customers get first crack at the total natural gas capacity, according to Bloomberg, whose company operates the New England Power Grid, runs the competitive wholesale electricity markets and plans for future power needs.

This in effect makes electric plant operators compete for their natural gas with winter consumers, according to O’Meara.

O’Meara said the closures of two of New England’s power plants — Salem Harbor closed this past June and Vermont Yankee is already ramping down operations in anticipation of a Dec. 31 closure — are also straining supply and increasing demand.

Unitil’s new six-month supply rate, which was filed with the Public Utilities Commission on Friday, will take effect Dec. 1 and continue to June 1.

When asked where the rates may go after June 1, O’Meara said that on "principle" he doesn’t "speculate on the energy market." He said the "chief driver appears to be seasonal," though, and he said there are measures residents can take to mitigate the impact of the rate increase.

O’Meara said Unitil, which in New Hampshire serves roughly 75,000 customers around the greater Hampton, Exeter and Concord areas, is "trying to communicate through all channels that are available" that there are energy-saving and cost-cutting initiatives consumers can take.

Some of those household initiatives and ideas are posted online at Unitil.com and at NHSaves.com, the latter of which is a site managed by the state’s electric and natural gas utilities.

"We’re very mindful of what this is and we’re doing what we can to try and get customers informed (about) what may be available to them," said O’Meara.

There also are alternatives if residents are willing to look outside of Unitil for their energy needs. O’Meara said residents can look into third-party electricity supply organizations to see whether the individual electricity contracts they provide can come in lower than the amount set for Unitil through the supply rate bidding process.

"If customers can find other rates on their own outside of the rate we provide, that’s something they should look at as far as options go," said O’Meara.