Recently, Public Service Company of New Hampshire (Eversource) filed new default energy service rates with the New Hampshire PUC effective January 1, 2018. Currently, all Eversource customer classes are eligible to receive the same fixed default service rate (except for cases of competitive supply). With this new filing, however, Eversource will have two default service groupings: a small customer class and a large customer class. The following delivery service classes would exist for small customers: Residential Rates R and R-OTOD, General Service Rates G and G-OTOD, Outdoor Lighting Rate OL for residential and small general accounts, and Outdoor Lighting Rates OL and EOL for municipal lighting.
Under the filing, Eversource would provide to these customers default service a flat rate that changes every six months (on January 1 and July 1). Eversource proposes to use a laddering approach to contracting for the small customer class. Aside from the initial transition period, Eversource would procure service for 50 percent of the small customer load for a one-year period every six months. For example, in March 2018, Eversource would solicit bids for 50 percent of the small customer load for July 2019 through June 2019. Then, in September 2018, it would also solicit bids for 50 percent of the small customer load for January 2019 through December 2019. Customers would pay for a blend of the two rates for January through July of 2019. As a result, rates would lag behind the market a bit, but they would not be fixed for too long. In addition, blended rates would not be as volatile as the market. Moreover, small customers would have an easier time predicting rates.
The following delivery service classes would exist for large customers: Primary General Service Rate GV, Large General Service Rate LG, Backup Service Rate B, and Outdoor Lighting Rate OL for any private area lighting associated with these accounts. For these customers, Eversource is proposing a default service rate that varies monthly. It would procure, with monthly rates, six-month contracts to serve 100 percent of the large customer group every six months. It would solicit competitive Request For Proposals (RFPs) load with full requirements (including energy, capacity, ancillary services, etc.). Rates would not include RPS. Rate adjustments would take effect with the rate changes on January 1 of each year.
