As natural gas demand constrained supply lines in December, the electricity prices in Connecticut held out better than the regional spike, data released from the U.S. Energy Information Agency shows.
In February’s EIA report of electricity prices – which processes on a three-month delay – the average retail price in Connecticut was 15.84 cents per kilowatt hour compared to the New England average of 16.11 cents.
Connecticut typically has the highest or the second highest electricity prices in the continental United States and hasn’t been below the New England average in at least four years.
The high regional average was driven by a spike in the wholesale price of electricity, as power plants were forced to switch to more expensive fuels when the demand for natural gas in home heating strained supply lines.
Rhode Island caught the brunt of the spike, as its electricity prices spiked 34 percent in December compared to December 2012. Massachusetts had a 21 percent increase.
New England averaged a 13 percent increase. Connecticut had a 3 percent increase.
