Gas and electricity prices have gone steadily up in this year, but just as the winter heating season arrives, the state Public Utility Commission says rates for both utilities will be going down, at least in this area.
The quarterly adjustment to the “price to compare” as Penelec refers to it, will see electricity rates falling one percent, from 10.021 cents per kilowatt hour to 9.889 cents, starting on Thursday, December 1st. Of the eleven regulated electric utilities in the state, six will increase their rates, one is expected to increase, one (Penelec) will decrease rates, one will have no change, and one has not finalized its rates.
The “price to compare” reflects the cost to the utility to acquire electricity. Electricity bills have two parts. After price to compare, the second component is the delivery and distribution charge, which includes the costs for operating and maintaining each company’s system. That is not adjusted quarterly.
The PUC also says that over the past few months, many gas companies have adjusted their rates, including Peoples Natural Gas, which dropped their price to compare 6.6 percent, from $8.713 to $8.1342 per thousand cubic feet. The same rate drop applies for customers of Peoples Gas Company LLC.
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