Peabody Municipal Electric Rates Will Rise Amid Wholesale Price Spike

PEABODY, MA — Peabody Municipal Light Plant residential and commercial customers will be hit with a rate rise of between 15 and 17 percent — retroactively to Oct. 1 — amid wholesale price spikes nationwide.

"We are obviously trying not to (raise rates)," PMLP General Manager Joe Anastasi told Patch two weeks ago. "We don't want to. There are a couple of market factors that have exploded recently in just the last couple of weeks.

"We are not completed shielded by the market."

The increase — which is a fraction of the increases National Grid and other major utilities recently announced — amounts to 1.9 cents per kilowatt hour and will make Peabody's rate 14.1 cents per kilowatt hour. National Grid said late last month it will also ask the state to double supply rates this winter: from last winter's 14.82 cents per kilowatt-hour rate to 33.89 cents.

"While every decision to increase rates is a difficult one we continue to strive to have one of the lowest and most affordable electric rates in the state," PMLP said in a statement.

The utility said the increase is necessary because its price-stabilization fund, which is typically used to offset volatility in the market, is projected to not cover the money needed to purchase power for customers through the winter.

PMLP said it will use $4 million from the rate-stabilization fund to minimize the increase.

"This year we are facing record-breaking energy prices," PMLP said. "These are driven by the rising cost of natural gas due to the war in Ukraine, global demand, as well as insufficient pipeline capability to deliver gas to the region's electricity generators on top of the gas needed to heat our homes and our businesses."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)