The standard electricity price for Bangor-area homes will stay flat in 2016, but the price of electricity supplied for small businesses is set to drop an average of 17 percent compared with this year.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission on Wednesday approved a standard offer price of about 6.6 cents per kilowatt-hour for residential customers in Emera Maine’s Bangor Hydro Electric district and an average rate of about 6.7 cents per kilowatt-hour for its medium class of customers, a class that includes small businesses and schools.
The new power prices will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016, for the full calendar year.
“We are encouraged that prices remain stable or slightly decreasing for retail and small business customers,” Mark Vannoy, chairman of the commission, said in a news release. “We are especially pleased to see medium business prices reduced significantly; a benefit from recent downward trends in energy markets that have been reflected in New England wholesale prices.”
Customers pay the standard offer price if they have not elected to get their power through a third-party competitive electricity provider.
As of September, more than 90 percent of the residential customers in Emera Maine’s Bangor Hydro Electric district got their power through the standard offer, down from November 2013 when more than 15 percent of customers had their power supplied by third-parties.
The flat standard offer reflects the second bidding process that’s led to a decline in standard offer power prices. The PUC, in its last procurement, changed its auction schedule and shifted the annual bidding and power purchase closer to the regional system’s wintertime peak.
The price approved for Bangor Hydro district customers is slightly more than bids approved for next year for Central Maine Power Co. customers, which was set at about 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour on Tuesday.
The PUC said it will release the names of the winning power suppliers in two weeks, after the contracts for power supply are completed.