Twelve dollars a month, voted through with the usual thirty days of public notice waived, for households already paying around forty-three cents a kilowatt-hour. That happened in the Virgin Islands yesterday. And this is Power Bill. After that, Rhode Island's shutoff numbers, the worst there since at least 2019, and a New Jersey request designed so nobody feels it until 2028. St. Thomas first.
Suzanne Carlson, writing in the Virgin Islands Daily News:
The increase of 3 cents per kilowatt hour to the Levelized Energy Adjustment Clause, or LEAC rate, is expected to increase costs by $12 per month for a residential customer using approximately 400 kilowatt-hours per month, according to WAPA.
On October sixth we told you WAPA was asking for this. Tuesday, the Public Services Commission said yes. Chairman David Hughes and commissioners Laura Nichols-Samms and Raymond Williams all voted to approve. And they waived the thirty-day public notice while they were at it. Here's the bill math. Commissioners had held the fuel charge at 22.22 cents for the last quarter of the year. Three cents on top puts it around 25.22. On WAPA's own example, a 400-kilowatt-hour home, that's twelve dollars more a month. The St. Thomas Source reports it applies to November and December. And I won't pretend the cause is made up. The commission's consultant, Julius Wright, said diesel is up about forty percent since July. But everybody in the room saying they hated it, then voting for it, doesn't help a family already paying forty-three cents a kilowatt-hour. Two things I'd circle. WAPA says that even with this increase it's still absorbing about four and a half cents a kilowatt-hour. And the commission still has to decide how to handle the deferred fuel costs that keep piling up. Somebody pays that balance eventually. Plus CEO Karl Knight says a new rate filing is coming for the period starting January first. Hughes said he hopes this is of limited duration. That's a hope. The order only runs through December.
The Providence Journal reports:
From May 1 until Aug. 31, Rhode Island Energy cut off service to 18,139 customers, which is higher than the total of 16,748 shutoffs from May 1 to Oct. 31 last year or the totals from April 15 to Oct. 31 in the six prior years when a shorter winter shutoff moratorium was in place, according to filings with state regulators.
Four months this year beat all six months of last year's shutoff season. And the season isn't over. The winter moratorium doesn't kick in until November first. The monthly filings tell it. June, 4,969 shutoffs, more than double the year before. July, 4,825, more than triple. August, 5,383, nearly twice. That's electric and gas together. And look at who's getting cut off. Customers on the low-income discount had 59 disconnections last August. This August it was more than ten times that. The Journal points to one main driver. In 2020 the state utilities commission had the company relax its rules, so a customer facing disconnection could put down ten percent of what they owed, then do it again, and again. Those rules ended December 31, 2025. Rhode Island Energy's Kristin DeSousa says those payment plans had an 82 percent default rate, and arrears went from $124.7 million in January 2022 to $254.9 million by May 2025. Fine, ten percent down forever just digs the hole deeper. But the answer to that can't be a wave of disconnect notices. Pawtucket chef David Kiner is out of work with a back injury and now owes $2,800. He only kept his gas on through a medical protection. If you're behind in Rhode Island, the rest of October is the window to act. Medical protection is one route. And per the Journal, calls to the 211 help line about utility bills are up nearly fourfold over 2025, so call early.
Tehseen Arbab, writing in Solar Examiner:
JCP&L estimates a typical residential customer using 767 kWh would pay $14.23 more a month, about 8.8%, raising the bill from $162.30 to $176.53.
Timing first. Jersey Central Power and Light filed this with New Jersey's Board of Public Utilities on August seventh. It's a proposal, and nothing is approved. It's back in the news because Utility Dive, citing the group PowerLines, called it the largest rate request filed in the third quarter. There are two parts: a $253 million base distribution increase, plus about $476 million in deferred storm costs, collected over ten years through a separate charge. Now the clever bit. New base rates would start May 6, 2027, but proposed offsets keep residential bills flat until January 2028. Then the base increase arrives, about seven percent by the company's estimate, and the storm charge starts that same month. Together that's the $14.23 on a 767-kilowatt-hour bill, roughly $170 a year. Solar Examiner notes JCP&L's release doesn't say how those offsets are funded. That's my question too. Pushing an increase back a year doesn't make it smaller. Somebody's carrying that gap, and I want to see the line where it shows up. The case is moving. Union County Life reports the state's Division of Rate Counsel has hired consultants to review the petition and is surveying towns for input. Solar Examiner found no hearing dates yet, so watch your bill for a notice from the BPU. And Governor Sherrill said back in January she'd push to freeze rates. This filing is a pretty direct test of that.
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On our list: WAPA's higher fuel charge on November and December bills, Rhode Island's shutoff counts until the moratorium starts November first, and any BPU hearing notice for JCP&L. Source links for today are in the episode notes. We're back tomorrow. Power Bill comes to you from Lantern Podcasts.