Group decries utility regulatorsÂ’ cap on rates
BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - Helping small businesses deal with higher electricity rates could come at the expense of larger businesses.
So says a group of commercial and industrial electric customers that challenged state utility regulators, who approved a cap on rates for 17,000 Maryland businesses May 29.
The Maryland Public Service Commission is requiring many of the state's small commercial customers to transition to a new utility rate by June. That transition, combined with rising energy costs, could levy a 40 percent increase in electric rates on businesses in service areas for Baltimore Gas & Electric, Delmarva Power & Light Co., and Allegheny Power.
The PSC is capping the increase at 15 percent for the companies from June to August. To help fund the rate cap, the PSC will require all commercial and industrial electric customers to pay an increase in distribution rates, a roughly 1 percent to 3 percent increase in their overall electric bills, during that time.
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Electricity restored to 75 percent of customers in Puerto Rico
PUERTO RICO - Nearly six months after Hurricane Maria decimated Puerto Rico, the island's electricity has been restored to 75 percent capacity, according to its utility company.
The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority said Sunday that 75.35 percent of customers now have electricity. It added that 90.8 percent of the electrical grid, already anemic even before the Sept. 20 storm barrelled through the island, is generating power again.
Thousands of power restoration personnel made up of the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority (PREPA), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), industry workers from the mainland, and the Army Corps of Engineers have made…
