Central Hudson Gas & Electric, a subsidiary of CH Energy Group, has filed a petition with the New York State Public Service Commission to set delivery rates for electricity and replace the current rate plan which would expire on June 30, 2010. The filing starts a 11-month regulatory process, which would set new delivery rates to be effictive from July 1, 2010.
Michael M. Mosher, vice president of Regulatory Affairs, said: “It’s important to note that due to a decline in the deregulated cost of energy supply, there is the potential that the impacts of the modest delivery rate increase requested today could be totally offset in customer bills that may be lower than those of 2008. The market supply prices for electricity and natural gas have fallen sharply in recent months – resulting in total residential typical bills for electricity and natural gas today that are actually lower than those of a year ago: about 13% lower for electricity and 35% lower for natural gas than July of last year. As a result, if approved, the delivery rate increase request we seek would be included in bills that could conceivably be lower in total based on the cost of energy supply in the future as compared to that of the recent past.”
The new delivery rates, if approved as proposed, would impact average residential electric bills by approximately 3.7% increase or around $3.46 a month, based on June 2009 market supply costs for electricity. The filing seeks to augment electric delivery revenues in total by $15.2m and natural gas delivery revenues by $3.9m. The proposed tariff changes may be approve, modify or reject by the Public Service Commission.
Mosher, said: “In just a few examples, we recently filed an austerity plan that temporarily reduced our operating costs, which is incorporated in current rates and will save customers $3 million during the upcoming year. We worked closely with our employees to reduce the costs of pension and other post-employment benefit plans, with an expected savings of nearly $75 million over the next five years, and are implementing an electric bill credit, returning $36 million to our customers over the next three years. Productivity at Central Hudson continues to improve, with 7% more customers served by 5% fewer employees in 2008 than in 2002.”
The company, in an effort to help customers manage their energy bills, has offers a suite of energy efficiency programs that provide financial incentives to help residents and businesses reduce their energy use, offering additional ways to save.