Maine Small Customer Default Service Rates To Be "Indexed" Starting June 1, 2017; Rates To Fall 16% On

The Maine PUC has approved new default service rates for small and medium customers at Maine Public Service (Emera Maine – Maine Public District), effective November 1, 2016.

At MPS, the residential & small commercial class Standard Offer rate will be 7.092 cents/kWh for the period November 1, 2016 to May 31, 2017.

The PUC said that for the remaining term, the MPS small customer Standard Offer price, "will be indexed." It was unclear from a PUC press release for how long the remaining term would be, but based on an RFP, would likely be at least through October 31, 2017 (the RFP had sought 1, 2, or 3 years of supply, though alternatives were permitted to be proposed), and how precisely the index would be calculated.

The November 2016 to May 2017 MPS small customer Standard Offer rate is 16.5% lower than the current Standard Offer rate of 8.493 cents/kWh.

For the MPS medium commercial class, the Standard Offer prices will be as follows ($/kWh):

Nov-2016     $0.05808
Dec-2016     $0.07423
Jan-2017     $0.09421
Feb-2017     $0.09349
Mar-2017     $0.06904
Apr-2017     $0.05286
May-2017     $0.04890

For the remaining term, the PUC said that the medium commercial Standard Offer price will be indexed.

These medium class prices are about 17% lower than prices during the same period last year, the PUC said