Electric Utility Announces

Generation Price Drop

BERLIN — Residential customers who purchase electricity from Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) will see the generation service charge (GSC) portion of their bills go down beginning January 1, 2011.

CL&P recently completed procuring electricity for the upcoming year and the GSC rate for residential “Rate 1” customers is expected to go down to 9.48 cents per kilowatt hour, from the current 11.05 cents per kilowatt hour, a decrease of approximately 14 percent in the GSC rate.

“This is good news for our customers who continue to use CL&P as their electric supplier,” said Jeff Butler, president and chief operating officer, CL&P. “This significant decrease reflects the considerable expertise and efforts of CL&P’s power purchasing team. We anticipate GSC prices will continue to decline for 2012.”

Under state law, CL&P purchases power over a multiyear period, aimed at smoothing out market volatility for its customers. The power supply for 2011 is the product of six solicitations conducted at separate times between the summer of 2008 and the fall of 2010.

CL&P’s 2011 price reflects the continually declining prices of power since 2008, through today.

The power procurement process is developed under the direction of the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC). Each procurement solicitation undertaken by the power purchasing team is overseen by the DPUC and the Office of Consumer Counsel.

The final results of the solicitation and the prices are approved by the DPUC.

As part of electric restructuring, CL&P no longer owns power generating plants and must buy the electricity it delivers from third-party suppliers. The majority of a customer’s bill reflects the market cost of electricity, which is passed through directly to customers without markup.

Currently, approximately one-third of a CL&P customer’s bill is associated with the delivery of electricity. January’s decrease will be reflected in the GSC portion of the bill.

For more information, visit www.cl-p.com.