You wouldn’t think people were all that upset about winter utility bills judging by the crowd gathered Tuesday night before the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC).
There were no signs, no shouting, and the dozen attendees fit easily in the rows of chairs — a stark contrast to the 200 people who spilled out from the commission’s Warwick offices at a public hearing six months earlier.
Joanne Rich, a Providence resident, acknowledged the crowd’s small size immediately.
“I almost didn’t come because this one seemed particularly futile,” Rich said. “But I am here because I didn’t want you to think for a moment that the public, the general public, is indifferent.”
Customers, advocates and lawmakers continued to rail against Rhode Island Energy, accusing the utility provider of putting profits over working families. A 206-signature petition submitted to the commission ahead of Tuesday’s hearing urged regulators to reject proposed winter electric rates which would take effect Oct. 1. The rate hikes require final approval from the PUC.
“Countless Rhode Islanders are being pushed to the brink by unaffordable rates, even as utility company profits reach new highs,” the petition, submitted by social justice group the George Wiley Center, stated. “We refuse to stand by while our neighbors suffer. It is time for the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission to take decisive action to protect residents and ensure access to these vital services.”
Electric supply rates typically increase every winter, reflecting the regular, seasonal fluctuations in supply and demand. The proposed 14.77 cents per kilowatt-hour price, coupled with changes in charges for renewable energy programs and infrastructure and capital improvement, would increase the average residential customer’s monthly bill by 16.05%, or $22.28, over existing, summer prices. However, the proposed winter supply rate is nearly 10% less than last winter, and below the record high during the 2022-2023 winter.
Meanwhile, proposed changes to gas bills based on gas prices and company cost recovery for operational expenses would cut annual bills by 10.3%, or $190.44 per year, for the average residential customer, starting Nov. 1.
Credits coming
The projections do not yet account for extra bill credits mandated by the 2022 acquisition of the state utility operations from National Grid to PPL Corp., Rhode Island Energy’s parent company. Originally, the $154 million in electric and gas discounts was set to be distributed over 40 years. But faced with backlash over rising bills, including a state audit of accounting errors that resulted in overcharging certain customers, Rhode Island Energy executives hope to curry favor by giving a bigger discount sooner.
At a rare July press conference to announce proposed winter rates — compared with the typical email notice — Greg Cornett, president of Rhode Island Energy, said the company plans to roll out monthly discounts starting in 2026. The discounts would slash electric bills $20 to $30 per month while cutting $40 to $50 from monthly gas bills, Cornett said.
The company has not submitted details of its requested credit distribution and schedule to utility regulators as of Wednesday morning, Todd Bianco, chief economic and policy analyst for the PUC, said in an email.
Separately, the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources has proposed spending $5 million from the state’s regional gas cap-and-trade program to credit low-income customers in October through December of this year. The annual monthly credit from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative revenue was not immediately available.
Both bill credit proposals require separate approvals from state utility regulators.
The proposed mitigation measures did not dilute the fury directed at Rhode Island Energy, which reported a $183 million profit for the three-month period that ended June 30. Company executives and hired lobbyists warned against bills lawmakers introduced during the 2025 session that would have capped company profits while helping low-income, senior and ailing ratepayers with more time to pay overdue bills, or reducing total costs entirely.
‘I am all by myself’
Many critics of the proposed rate hikes reiterated support Tuesday for the Percentage of Income Payment Plan, a policy solution that already exists in a dozen other states that limits utility costs for the lowest-income residents.
“This failure is not natural or unavoidable,” Melissa Bubble, a community health worker, told regulators. “It’s a manmade failure.”
For Bubble, it’s personal. Rising rates make it harder for her to also pay for food for her children, she said.
Other ratepayers recounted the shock of having utilities abruptly shut off, or bundling in blankets, with the heat low and all appliances unplugged, to shave costs.
“It’s very hard for people like myself right now,” said Vrenely Espinosa, tearing up as she spoke. “I am all by myself.”
State law prevents the state utility supplier from boosting its bottom line through usage costs, which must directly reflect the price from third-party suppliers — a point reiterated by Brian Schuster, a company spokesperson, on Tuesday. And, state regulators cannot reject proposed seasonal rate increases as long as there is no evidence of extra profits for the company.
But, the PUC has control to limit spending on service charges, including capital investments, and can authorize policy changes. In March 2020, the commission ordered the utility operator — still owned by National Grid at the time — to give customers more time to pay overdue bills, with a lower upfront payment, before facing shutoffs.
Rhode Island Energy is now seeking to suspend that pandemic-era requirement, which has more than doubled the debt owed by ratepayers, from $124.7 million in January 2022, to $254.9 million as of May 2025, according to written filings. If approved by state regulators, the extended payment plan would end Dec. 1, though customers already on the pandemic-era plan could remain so.
Roughly 2,700 Rhode Island Energy customers have taken advantage of extended repayment plans in 2024 and 2025, according to filings submitted to state regulators. Terminating their accounts could result in utility shutoffs for 5,000 residents, Troy Lange, an attorney representing the George Wiley Center, wrote in a June 30 letter to state regulators.
“It is critical that the Commission ensures Rhode Islanders are able to keep their utilities on, or restore service, as a matter of public safety, particularly as summer temperatures remain high and anomalous weather events—such as the heat wave which occurred the week of June 23, setting area temperature records for the month of June—occur with increasing frequency,” Lange wrote.
Feeling the strain
Rep. Teresa Tanzi, a South Kingstown Democrat, implored regulators not to approve higher rates and end flexible debt repayment options simultaneously, noting the additional strains posed by the federal administration.
“Times are incredibly tough, and so many people are struggling right now,” Tanzi said. “Rate increases and the change in repayment plans cannot happen simultaneously. I am not in favor of either of them, but my god, do not do them concurrently.”
Federal workers in her district have lost their jobs, while federal budget cuts are expected to reduce food assistance and government health care subsidies for thousands of Rhode Islanders. Meanwhile, the forced stop to the Revolution Wind project in late August — with 80% of the 65-turbine wind farm already complete — threatens to upend Rhode Island’s labor force and compromise climate change mandates while risking instability to the regional grid. Without it, the region’s ratepayers will pay up to $500 million more in annual supply costs per year starting in 2028, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Commissioner Katie Dykes said last week.
Chris Kearns, Rhode Island’s acting energy commissioner, deferred to Connecticut’s projections when asked for information about Rhode Island specific bill impacts on Wednesday.
Rhode Island Energy did not immediately respond to inquiries for comment Wednesday about the local impacts of the stop work order on Revolution Wind. The company is separately in talks to buy additional wind power from another project planned off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, SouthCoast Wind. That project also remains uncertain under the Trump administration, and is still awaiting key federal permits.
The Public Utilities Commission will vote on proposed winter gas and electric rates, as well as the proposed termination of pandemic-era repayment flexibility, at separate meetings, none of which have been scheduled.
The George Wiley Center is a recognized intervenor in the case, meaning it gets additional opportunities to speak and submit written filings to the commission during subsequent deliberations. The Rhode Island Office of the Attorney General was also recognized as an intervenor, but has not come out in opposition or support of the proposed rate changes. The AG’s office will be submitting its written testimony in the next few days, Tim Rondeau, a spokesperson, said Wednesday.
Customers in seven municipalities — Barrington, Central Falls, Narragansett, Newport, Portsmouth, Providence, and South Kingstown — can opt out of Rhode Island Energy electric prices and participate instead in a community aggregation plan that leverages bulk buying power to secure lower-priced electricity for residents. The default community winter electric rates, which take effect Nov. 1, have not been announced.
About 25% of the 780,000 Rhode Island Energy customers already opt out of the company’s default electric prices.
This story was originally published by the Rhode Island Current.
