Aroostook County residents who receive the standard offer electricity supply from Versant Power will see an increase of roughly $2 a month in January.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission set new standard offer supply rates on Tuesday for Versant’s Maine Public District, serving most of Aroostook County, and Central Maine Power’s Bangor Hydro District.
Most residences will see the current 11.29 cents per kilowatt hour rise to 11.65 cents per kilowatt hour on Jan. 1, an increase of about a third of a cent.
A typical residential customer using 500 kilowatt hours a month will pay roughly $1.84 more each month, according to the commission.
Small business customers will see a slight decrease, from 10.64 to 10.61 cents per kilowatt hour. Medium-sized businesses will see their average rate of 9.86 cents per kilowatt hour rise to 10.47 cents.
Utility bills contain two parts: electricity supply, for which most people use the standard offer rate, and transmission and delivery, which a utility company provides. Standard offer costs are about half of the total residential customer bill, according to the commission.
The rates were determined by a competitive bidding process, the commission stated.
At the beginning of this year, County ratepayers saw a decrease of more than 3 cents per kilowatt hour each month.
The Public Utilities Commission also announced slightly lower standard offer rates for Central Maine Power’s Bangor Hydro residential customers. Rates for Versant’s Bangor Hydro customers have not been set yet.
