ORANGE – United Illuminating residential customers will see a 4% decrease in their monthly overall electric rates in winter 2026 compared to winter 2025 and a 3% increase in monthly electric rates for the second half of 2026 compared to the current period.
Following its filing of the new standard service supply rates, UI, a subsidiary of Avangrid Inc., announced Nov. 17 that from January 1-June 30, 2026, the average residential UI customer using 700 kWh of electricity will pay $252.12. In the same period in 2025, the average residential UI customer paid $262.97.
However, in the July-December 2025 summer period, the average residential UI customer is paying $244.28. Those bills will be $251.61 for such customers in the same period of 2026. The bill changes are driven primarily by the components of the electric bill that are outside UI’s control, as decreases in the Public Benefits Charge that took effect this fall combine with supply rates that are virtually always higher in the winter than in the summer, the utility stated.
The cost of energy supply and the Public Benefits Charge are pass-through costs for UI; UI does not mark up, control, or profit from supply rates or the Public Benefits Charge.
“Following several years of wildly fluctuating electricity supply rates, I am glad to see some stability return to this marketplace, which limits rate shock for customers,” said Frank Reynolds, UI president and CEO. “While we have not controlled or profited from electricity supply costs in nearly 30 years, we know customers are counting on us to advocate for ways to bring more electricity supply into New England that will lower these rates over the long term.
The decreases in the overall winter electric bill between this year and last year are driven by the state legislature’s decision to cut the Public Benefits Charge using state bonding funds, which went into effect in September 2025. The supply rate, meanwhile, will change very little year-over-year between winter 2025 (13.57 cents per kWh) and winter 2026 (13.70 cents per kWh), an increase of just 0.9% for residential UI customers.
The company further explained that electricity supply rates in the wintertime are virtually always higher than in the summer, a trend that will hold in the first half of 2026 as supply rates increase to 13.70 cents per kWh from 11.68 cents per kWh currently (July 1-Dec. 30, 2025).
For approximately 83% of UI customers who opt to use the standard service supply rate, UI procures energy supply on their behalf under the oversight of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority; per Connecticut law, the charges represent a complete pass-through cost collected from customers on behalf of energy supplier companies, with no profit or mark-up to UI.
Because Connecticut law prohibits alternate suppliers in Connecticut from charging termination fees, customers may switch suppliers as often as they like, though it may take up to two billing cycles for changes to take effect. Customers may visit the EnergizeCT Rate Board at https://energizect.com/rate-board/choosing-a-supplier.
