By: Allison Mannheimer |
A proposed price hike for National Grid customers could take effect on April 1st.
The price increase still has to be approved by the New York State Public Service Commission, but the company explained how customers’ monthly bills would be affected.
The average electricity increase would be about 2.9% or $2.22 per month, while the gas increase would be around 1.7% or $1.20.
A company spokesperson told NewsChannel 9 most of the money National Grid makes from raising rates will go directly towards capital improvements.
“A lot of our systems were designed and built decades ago. In some cases, many, many decades ago,” said Steve Brady, Communications Manager at National Grid. “It’s constant work to be finding those areas where we need to upgrade immediately, but also keeping an eye on the future.”
Brady also said the rate hike could have been higher, if not for the new GOP tax plan, which lowered the corporate tax rate from 35% to 20%.
