O&R Requests 9.7 Percent Rate Increase

Rockland Electric customers in Mahwah and throughout Bergen and Passaic counties may see a rate increase next year, if the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) approves a rate increase request the utility made earlier this week.

RE, a subsidiary of Orange & Rockland, announced in a release this week that it requested a $19.3 million increase in electric distribution base rates to help pay for costs incurred from three major storms over the past two years – Hurricane Irene, the Halloween Snowstorm in 2011, and Superstorm Sandy.

If approved, the rate hike would translate to a 9.7 percent increase. Typical customers that use 925 kWh a month would see an increase of $15.97 a month, from an average cost of $164.34 to $180.31, RE said in the release.

The utility estimates the change will take effect next September.

The request is the first the utility said it has made in four-and-a-half years.

About $11 million of the requested increase will help cover costs from the three storms, form a fund for future storm management, and work on “storm hardening projects,” the company said.

“The storm hardening projects are part of a new Rockland Electric construction program…that is aimed at reducing electric outages to customers and speeding electric service restoration when outages occur,” it said in the release.

The utility also plans to release a detailed plan in coming months that will propose the creation of a “Storm Hardening Surcharge.”

The rest of the increase, it said, will cover the costs of delivering electricity.

Rockland Electric serves about 11,000 customers in Mahwah, and 72,000 customers overall in northern NJ.