Welcome to 2006: PUC Defers Default Service Rate Increase

The Rhode Island PUC has deferred National Grid's Standard Offer Service electric rate increase for residential and commercial customers.

Although a written order was not available, it is understood that the PUC deferred 16.9% of the increase in residential SOS rates which would have otherwise occurred under the normal SOS rate setting process.

National Grid confirmed that the residential SOS rate, including the bypassable renewable adder, for the period starting January 1, 2015 will be 10.248¢/kWh.

Without the deferral, the residential SOS rate would have been 12.705¢/kWh

The current National Grid residential SOS rate is 7.879¢/kWh.

Although the 16.9% deferral approved by the PUC has been described as a 12-month deferral, Matters preliminarily understands that National Grid may file for an adjustment to the SOS rate effective July 1, 2015 (the normal schedule for rate updates), though this understanding must be confirmed via a written order.

National Grid also told EnergyChoiceMatters.com that its fixed commercial SOS rate will be 11.659¢/kWh effective January 1.

This indicates that the PUC has also deferred the commercial rate increase, as the fixed commercial rate originally filed by National Grid was 13.375¢/kWh, effective January 1, 2015.

The current commercial SOS rate is about 8.8¢/kWh

It is understood that the PUC did not defer any industrial SOS rates.

The biggest unanswered question is how the deferral will be collected, and whether any deferral recovery will be bypassable for customers who no longer take default service from National Grid. National Grid said that it could not address this specific detail until fully digesting the Commission's order, and the PUC did not respond to a request for information on this issue prior to publication.