Rates for merged NStar go up a bit, down a bit
Seven years after the parent companies of three Eastern Massachusetts electric utilities merged to become NStar Electric, NStar has finally merged the utilities themselves. That will mean a small rate break for old Boston Edison Co. customers, but rate increases of $2 to $4 a month for many Cambridge and Cape Cod customers.
NStar said late yesterday that state and federal regulators have approved the combination of Boston Edison, Cambridge Electric, and Commonwealth Electric into a single electric utility. Although NStar has operated under one name since 1999, it has still filed different rates for each operating unit. Last month, NStar sought rate increases of 2 percent to 5 percent for the three utilities to take effect on Jan. 1.
NStar yesterday filed a revised set of rate requests. For an average homeowner or small business using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity monthly, next month's increase for a former Edison customer -- people who get NStar electricity in Boston and all Boston suburbs except Cambridge -- will be 78 cents less than NStar previously reported.
But ComElectric customers -- those on the Cape and Martha's Vineyard and communities around New Bedford and Plymouth --will have to pay an additional $2.21 a month, while Cambridge customers' bills will rise $3.60 above the previously reported increase.
NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen said the changes reflect only math. "Anytime there's an averaging process, some customers are going to go up and some customers are going to go down," Allen said.
In the future, the merger should save NStar customers because filing one set of rates costs less than three. Also, Allen said, NStar may get bigger discounts buying electric supply for all 921,000 "basic service" electric customers -- those who pay NStar instead of a competitive supplier -- as one group instead of as three.
Counting both the cost of energy and distribution and customer fees, Edison region customers will pay $102.35, up from $100.47, starting Jan. 1. ComElectric rates will go to $102.77 from $95.95 now. Cambridge rates will rise to $104.10 from $98.36. The increases are subject to approval by the Department of Telecommunications and Energy.
The reason the new rates aren't identical -- despite the three utilities' merging -- is because of a settlement with Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly last year that requires different "distribution" rates be charged for each utility through 2010. But as a result of the merger, all NStar basic service customers will now pay the same rate for electric generation and for long-distance transmission, Allen said.
Peter J. Howe can be reached at howe@globe.com. 
