[sunnyatlast]

If only our winter energy generating problems were as "simple" as some think it could be without production methods like fracking, nuclear and coal…….

CL&P Electric Rates To Jump 26 Percent Starting In January

Hartford, CT -- NOVEMBER 7, 2014

The cost of a kilowatt hour will jump 26 percent for Connecticut Light & Power's residential customers starting next year.

The unwelcome spike in electricity generation prices is a direct result of bottlenecks in natural gas pipelines. And although it's little consolation, prices are jumping throughout New England.

Default generation rates, which are developed by CL&P and state officials, will be 12.629 cents per kilowatt hour from Jan. 1 to June 30 for residential customers, up from 9.99 cents per kilowatt hour in the last six months of 2014.

The generation rates pay for the production of electricity at power plants and make up about half of residents' monthly bills. Another major portion of the bill, distribution rates, are also under regulatory review and are expected to increase early next year for CL&P customers….

...Natural gas is cheap, and now more than half of New England's power plants use the fuel. Although all that power from newly inexpensive natural gas should result in lower electricity costs, there is a major problem getting the fuel into the region.

For the past two winters, as homes and businesses use up more and more of the three pipelines feeding New England, there was not enough room for power plants to get their gas, and what little room was left was expensive. Some natural gas plants were unable to get fuel to run, so older and more expensive oil plants were called on to run.

Magnifying the problem, a few large non-gas power plants shut down this year, including the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant and the Salem Harbor coal plant, leaving the region with fewer alternatives to the crowded pipelines, said Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, a power plant industry group.

"It put further strain on a natural gas supply infrastructure that is already tight," Dolan said……"

Electric rates: CL&P Electric Rates To Jump 26% Starting January - Hartford Courant