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PSNH Small Customer Default Service Rate To Increase 24%
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Public Service of New Hampshire has filed to increase its energy service (default service) rate for the small customer group by 24%, effective August 1, 2026
For the PSNH small customer group (including residential customers), PSNH proposes to set the electric default service rate for the period August 2026 through January 2027 at $0.14009 per kWh, which is 24% higher than the current rate of $0.11303 per kWh.
For the Large customer group, PSNH proposes monthly default service rates as follows ($ per kWh):
August 2026 - $0.11862
September 2026 - $0.10645
October 2026 - $0.10528
November 2026 - $0.12119
December 2026 - $0.18350
January 2027 - $0.19760
PSNH reported that 57% of residential customers, 21% of commercial
customers, and less than 8% of industrial customers currently take default service
PSNH reported that the small customer group is projected (through July 2026) to have an under-recovery of
$25.7 million in default service costs, which reflects a current period under-recovery of $18.8 million, plus an existing $4.8 million under-recovery, and other factors.
PSNH cited, as a major driver of the under-recovery, the current proxy price methodology used to set the retail default service price for the 50% of small customer SOS load served directly from the ISO-NE market
PSNH said, "The evidence to date indicates that the self-supply proxy price has consistently
fallen below the total ISO-NE billed costs of serving Energy Service load through
self-supply market-based procurements, which have necessitated aggregate
reconciliations totaling approximately $39 million through May 2026."
PSNH included in its filing an analysis which PSNH said, "demonstrates that establishing the self-supply proxy price using the lowest accepted
supplier bid approach would have resulted in the lowest reconciliation amounts."
"[A]fter three
completed market-based procurement rate periods, the Company’s analysis of the
alternatives that have been presented to date demonstrates that replicating the lowest
accepted supplier bid as the self-supply proxy price would have resulted in the lowest
reconciliation balances," PSNH said
PSNH said, "Wholesale suppliers are experts at managing a generation
portfolio and/or forward energy contracts and other market hedging strategies so it is
reasonable to assume their 'risk premiums' include a reasonable attempt to value
future market price volatility risk as well as market design and regulatory uncertainty
risk. Furthermore, that approach would enable the self-supply proxy price to be better
aligned with the accepted bids for the 50% of load allocated to wholesale suppliers
under Full Requirements service".
PSNH also estimates that self-supply market-based
procurements, when comparing the ISO-NE billed costs of serving Energy Service
load through self-supply versus the rejected tranches
that otherwise would have been selected under a 100% Full Requirements model, has
saved customers $2.9 million during the period August 2024 - May 2026.
Concerning the length of the reconciliation period for SOS costs, PSNH said, "With respect to the question whether ES rate reconciliations should be implemented on a
semi-annual rather than an annual basis, the Company does not see a compelling reason to
make that change at this time. It is really a policy decision for the Commission to make,
and the Company could administer the ES rate reconciliations on either frequency
alternative, although more frequent reconciliations would likely increase the administrative
burden and related A&G expenses to some degree."
In the PSNH default service proceeding, the PUC issued a preliminary ruling holding that the New Hampshire Office of Consumer Advocate's proposal to change how carrying charges are applied to default service over and under-collections will not be addressed in the instant phase of the proceeding, but may be addressed in a later phase, or in another proceeding
Docket DE 26-017
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June 22, 2026
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Copyright 2026 EnergyChoiceMatters.com
Reporting by Paul Ring • ring@energychoicematters.com
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