The state's largest utility is adding a new charge to customers’ bills in 2014 to cover the costs the company incurred responding to major storms this year, Green Mountain Power announced.
The surcharge will add an additional 1.5 percent to GMP bills next year, said spokeswoman Dorothy Schnure. For the average customer, she said, that adds up to about $1.50 per month.
“Last year we had several major storms,” Schnure said. “We had Superstorm Sandy and three other major storms.”
Normally, Green Mountain Power's rates provide the company enough revenue to deal with an average storm year, Schnure said. Responding to the more intense storms sometimes requires the company to call in out-of-state line workers and others to help restore power as quickly as possible.
“What we’ve learned is by bringing in outside contractors, we can accomplish two things,” Schnure said. “First of all, having a big mass of people responding quickly gets the power back on much faster. But it also means our response costs less because we’re not worrying about hotel charges and meal charges for a long restoration process.”
The new charges will likely be offset early in the year by credits given to customers for lower than expected power suppl costs, Schnure said, and they also aren’t necessarily here to stay. The new surcharges will help Green Mountain Power cover its costs from 2013’s storms; they may not be necessary in 2015 if 2014’s weather is more moderate, Schnure said.
Correction 12/30/2013 8:02 p.m.: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated the reason for next year's customer credits.
