RI Energy Electric Bills To Drop, But Remain Pricier Than Last Summer

RHODE ISLAND — The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved summer electricity rates for Rhode Island Energy customers.

The new residential rate for the state's largest utility company is 10.3 cents per kilowatt hour. This is far cheaper than the 17.8 percent charged this past winter, but still about 32 percent more than the 7.8 percent charged last summer.

Commercial customer rates were set to about 10 cents per kilowatt hour, while industrial rates ranged from 12.9 to 13.1 cents, depending on the month.

New rates begin in April and run through September.

Though most of the Ocean State will pay these prices, seven Rhode Island cities and towns launched the state's first municipal electricity aggregation programs. Communities that launched their own programs include Barrington, Central Falls, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence and South Kingstown.

How does it work? State law allows individual cities and towns to buy electricity in bulk and sell it to residents. Otherwise, you default to Rhode Island Energy as your supplier — and that means you pay the company's much higher supply rates.

How much is the savings? Take Newport as an example. Under Newport Community Electricity, the basic residential price is $9.76 cents per kilowatt hour.

There's also two other more expensive packages that use more renewable sources of energy, but both those prices remain lower than Rhode Island Energy's rates, according to city officials.