HWC electric rates to drop

By Elna Seabrooks
Staff Writer
    HOULTON — The new year ushered in some good news from Houlton Water Company (HWC) general manager John Clark who says customers can expect a rate reduction starting April 1. Electric rates will be going down 6 percent, according to Clark, thanks to a three-year contract with New Brunswick Power.
    “It certainly has to be a help. If your typical electric bill is in the $80 range and you get a 6 percent decrease, that’s helpful. For the last six months our arrears have gone up. People are having a tough time out there,” said Clark.
    The new rates will apply to HWC residential and commercial electric accounts when the contract with Integrys Energy at 8.62 cents per kilowatt-hour expires March 31, 2010. The new rate with New Brunswick Power at 7.94 cents starts April 1.
Competitive bidding
    “Back in October we put a proposal together for bids hoping that we would be able to get better prices and we were very fortunate. We told the suppliers here’s what we need — approximately 100 million kilowatt-hours per year for the next three years,” explained Clark.
    As a municipally owned company, HWC’s electric rates are more favorable than those of profit-making utilities because HWC doesn’t mark up the actual cost of the electricity that it buys from suppliers. The company sends out its electric bills broken down into two parts: energy and delivery.
    Clark said “whatever we pay for energy, we pass on to the customer. So, there is no markup at all on energy. Our delivery service, which is a separate part of your bill, pays for our salaries, our trucks, gas for the trucks, heating the office and our expenses other than energy.”
Local price spikes
    Although the dip in billing won’t occur for a couple of months, enough chilly weather lies ahead to  appreciate savings from the new rates, especially if oil keeps going up and electric space heaters supplement home heating. Uncharacteristic cold weather in many parts of the nation has put pressure on oil supplies forcing prices to spike over the last couple of weeks.
    Some local consumers in the Houlton area are already seeing and feeling the upward trends in home heating prices and gasoline due to increased demand.
    Bob Corey of Presque Isle was working on a construction job in Houlton last Friday and said gas in Presque Isle was lower than Houlton’s $2.939. Corey said he has seen gasoline prices go up “a little already and in the future, ‘who knows?’”
    Rhonda Adams said she thinks her electricity from Eastern Maine Electric Cooperative is probably higher than HWC’s. In fact, it is. The standard rate for energy posted on the Eastern Maine Electric Web site is 9.15 cents per kilowatt-hour until March 31.
    Adams uses wood, not oil, to heat her home in Linneus and agrees gas is higher in Houlton. “You can go to Oakfield or Presque Isle and it’s cheaper.”
    With the squeeze on consumers for every dollar, Clark acknowledged that some may resort to electric heaters as an option to stave off the cold so they can redirect cash to other necessities. “Electricity is such a basic component that everyone needs, we think it ought to be delivered and charged at the lowest cost possible.”