[T]he energy efficiency charge Vermonters pay on their electrical bills will rise 1 percent for residential customers in 2018, Efficiency Vermont announced Thursday. Meanwhile, the charge will decrease 8 percent for commercial customers and 11 percent for industrial customers.
The 1 percent increase for residential customers will amount to an additional eight cents each month for the average customer, according to the organization’s calculations.
The efficiency charges are the source of the group’s roughly $50 million annual budget.
Efficiency Vermont is a program created by the Legislature that acts as a utility, and is regulated by the Public Utility Commission. Efficiency Vermont’s purpose is to reduce the amount of electricity that residents and businesses require. Recent studies have shown the program saves between $2 and $4 for every dollar Vermonters spend on it.
The residential efficiency charge rose because Efficiency Vermont undercollected in 2017, executives at the organization said. State officials estimated Vermont residences would use more electricity in 2017 than they actually did when they calculated the 2017 efficiency charge.
The residential rates will rise slightly while the two other sectors decrease because all three pools of money are largely kept separate, said Abby White, Efficiency Vermont’s director of marketing, communications and public affairs.
The Department of Public Service forecasts electric use for coming years based on previous years’ electrical consumption, White said. But Vermonters are increasingly producing their own electricity, which means previous years’ usage might not be as good a predictor as in the past, she said.
Across all sectors, the efficiency charge actually reduced by 5 percent, White said — a first for the organization.
Much of that reduction is attributable to internal efficiencies at the organization, she said.
Through the efficiency charge, Vermonters pay for an Efficiency Vermont budget that has diminished slightly in recent years, to around $50 million per year. That budget will remain flat through 2020, according to a Public Utility Commission order from this summer.
The new rates go into effect at the beginning of February, White said.
