Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Con Ed $721 Million Rate Increase Approved By PSC

The New York State Public Service Commission State approved a $721 million rate increase on Tuesday. The total includes $523.4 million for a one-year increase in Consolidated Edison’s rates for delivering electric service and $198 million for a temporary surcharge on bills to pay for state-mandated assessments. Typical residential customers will see an increase in their monthly bill of about $6 in New York or about $8 in Westchester County. The overall increase on electricity bills will be 6.1 percent across the Con Edison system.

The increase comes just over a year after Consolidated Edison won a $425 million increase from the commission in March 2008. That increase resulted in an increase of $4.25 in the monthly bill for a typical residential customer in New York City and an increase of $5.60 in the monthly bill for a typical residential customer in Westchester.

The factors driving Con Edison’s need for additional revenue are real property taxes, state assessment changes, addition to utility plant, increases in pensions and other retirement benefits, and a change in return on equity, or profit for Con Edison, to 10 percent, up from 9.1 percent. (NYT, 4/21/09)

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