Another utility has announced that electric rates will rise this winter. For customers of the New Hampshire Electric Coop, the state’s second largest utility, winter electricity bills will rise 12.2%
The rate increase takes place on October 1st, and will cost ratepayers using 500 kilowatt hours $12.47 cents more per month. The increase is due to increasing rates on the energy half of the electric bill, which are increasing from 8.97 cents per kilowatt hour, to 11.6 cents.
Electric Coop spokesman Seth Wheeler says the reason for the increase is the same everywhere you look. “The lack of pipeline capacity adequate to handle both the winter demand for power generation and also for heating, that’s causing the price of natural gas to sky-rocket every winter,” he explains.
The coop is the third New Hampshire utility to announce its winter prices. The state’s biggest utility, Public Service of New Hampshire expects to have only a slight increase, while Liberty Utilities expects bills to rise as much as fifty percent. Unitil isn’t expected to file its winter rate until October.
