WMECO Residential Default Service Rate To Increase

Western Massachusetts Electric Co. (Eversource) announced yesterday that it has filed to set the January 1, 2016 to June 30, 2016 Massachusetts electric basic service rate at 10.394¢/kWh

WMECO said that the current basic service rate is 9.767¢/kWh, but noted that the proposed 2016 rate is significantly below last year's rate of over 14¢/kWh for the comparable period.

"This is great news for our customers, but we are also mindful of the volatile nature of the energy markets as well as the fact that New England continues to experience higher energy prices compared to other areas of the country," said Penni Conner, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer at Eversource Energy. "Until new energy infrastructure is in place to relieve constraints and to lessen the region’s reliance on natural gas, we can expect to experience these price swings. In the meantime, customers have the opportunity to shop for supply prices; and we offer a wide variety of energy efficiency programs and budget billing and payment options to help them save energy and money."

Monthly variable rates and rates for C&I customers were not immediately available