This is a good story, Ian. Could you also mention that the George Wiley Center has been involved with this for years, and also Christopher Young, who is still running for the United States Senate as a write-in candidate for November? See article below.

PUC OKs 5.2-percent rate hike for Grid

12:20 PM EST on Friday, December 21, 2007

By Timothy C. Barmann

Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK — Saying their hands were tied, state regulators yesterday approved a 5.2-percent increase in electricity rates for customers of National Grid PLC.

The Public Utilities Commission voted, 3 to 0, to allow the rate increase, which will go into effect Jan. 1.

A typical customer who uses 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month will see an increase of $3.80 in their monthly bill, according to National Grid, bringing that bill to $76.66 a month, from its current $72.86 a month.

The PUC held the vote during an “open meeting” in a hearing room at its offices on Jefferson Boulevard. At an open meeting, the commissioners discuss and vote on issues before them. It is open to the public, but the public is not allowed to participate.

Before the PUC was an annual “reconciliation” filing by National Grid, in which the utility company reconciles how much it paid for electricity with how much it received from customers over the past year. The calculations also take into account the projected cost of electricity in the coming year.

To balance expected payments with projected electricity costs, National Grid said it would need to raise the “standard offer” rate to 9.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, up from the current rate of 8.3 cents.

The company buys electricity on behalf of the vast majority of its customers through long-term contracts with suppliers. Most of those contracts contain clauses that automatically increase the cost of purchasing electricity if the market prices of natural gas and fuel oil rise beyond a certain trigger point. The company makes no profit from buying the electricity on behalf of its customers. It makes money from distributing the power to those customers, and distribution rates have been frozen at their current level since January 2005.

National Grid told regulators that the recent increase in crude-oil prices means that it will have to pay more for electricity next year. Without a rate increase, the company said it projected that payments from customers would fall short of the cost of electricity by $64.7 million by the end of December 2008.

At yesterday’s open meeting, about 30 people sat in the hearing room, including several people who came to discourage the PUC from increasing electricity rates.

One woman sat quietly, holding up a Monopoly board game, a reference to National Grid’s dominance as the sole provider of electricity and natural gas to most Rhode Islanders.

Before the rate increase vote was taken, PUC Chairman Elia Germani took pains to explain why the commission had little choice but to approve the rate request.

“This process, which is conducted on an annual basis, is an evaluation by the commission of expenditures incurred during the year by National Grid,” Germani said.

“Our only role here is to determine if the reconciliation computation is correct. …What we’re talking about here is merely a mathematical calculation.”

“So this is really recovery cost for energy purchase?” asked Commissioner Mary Bray.

“Yes,” Germani replied.

Someone from the audience shouted, “It’s a rate increase.” It was Christopher Young, a former candidate for U.S. Senate who garnered about 10 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary in September 2006.

Germani replied to Young: “I would respectfully suggest, if you can’t keep your comments to yourself, you might consider leaving the room.”

To which Young shouted back, “If you can’t tell the truth, maybe you should leave the room.”

After little discussion, the commissioners voted to approve the increase and began to discuss a related matter.

Young interrupted again.

“Just like that, no conversation.”

Germani stopped the meeting again. “I ask you, Mr. Young, to leave the room if you can’t keep your mouth shut.”

“Do you want me to leave the room?” Young asked.

“Yeah,” Germani replied.

“Well, I won’t. If you’re not going to address this issue and how it affects the poor and those that are hungry …”

At that point, Germani called a recess, and the Warwick police were called. About 15 minutes later, four officers arrived. One of them warned Young not to disrupt the meeting again, and the commissioners then resumed their discussions.

The other major issue they voted on was whether to continue allocating to low-income customers a portion of some money that National Grid received after the resolution of a contract dispute several years ago.

The commissioners voted, 2 to 1, to allocate $2.225 million from those funds to reduce the bills of customers who receive the low-income rate. Robert Holbrook voted against the proposal, saying that the money should go to all ratepayers, not just one particular group. He added that actions to help low-income customers pay their bills should come from the General Assembly, not the PUC.

Germani, a Republican, said he was “deeply disappointed” that President Bush did not bolster the federal heating-assistance program, known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program or LIHEAP.

The president is expected to sign a bill today that keeps financing for the program at about the same level it was last year. The bill does set aside an extra $400 million in contingency funds that the president can release at his discretion.

“We need a dramatic increase in LIHEAP funding,” Germani said.

tbarmann@projo.com