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Slight increase in Delmarva Power rates coming July 1

Delaware Public Media
Delaware utility regulators approved increases in rates for Delmarva Power’s electric and natural gas customers this week.";

Delmarva Power customers in the First State will pay more come July 1st.

The utility’s estimated 454,000 Delaware customers will see their electric and natural gas rates go up slightly.

Delmarva Power spokesman Jake Sneeden says the utility asked Delaware’s Public Service Commission for the increase this week, “The adjustment that we proposed to the Commission is a routine adjustment that we make every six months to the Distribution System Improvement Charge (DSIC). The DSIC is a line item on electric and natural gas customer bills that is gradually adjusted every six months to pay for the needed infrastructure investments that we’re making in the grid every day.”

Sneeden says regulators approved moving the gas DSIC rate from 0.93-percent to 3.12-percent - adding an estimated $1.43 to the average residential monthly bill.

The electric DSIC rate goes from 0.29-percent to 0.94-percent. That’s expected to increase the average residential monthly bill by about 29-cents.

Sneeden outlines what the additional money will pay for, “Those improvements include replacing and upgrading our equipment - so you’re looking at utility poles, new wires, new gas lines. And all of those investments that we’re making in the energy grid have made significant improvements for our customers in the service that they’re getting from us.”

Sneeden notes over the past five years, Delmarva Power has seen a 34-percent decrease in the frequency of electric outages.

 

Kelli Steele has over 30 years of experience covering news in Delaware, Baltimore, Winchester, Virginia, Phoenix, Arizona and San Diego, California.