Block Island Times

Utility District rate hearing  to be held on Jan. 9

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission will hold a public hearing on Thursday, Jan. 9 at Town Hall to take comments on a new rate design proposed by the Block Island Utility District. The hearing starts at 12:30 p.m. If there is inclement weather, the hearing will be held on Jan. 23.
The Utility District purchased the assets, and the name, of the Block Island Power Company in March 2019, transforming the company from a privately held corporation into a not-for-profit utility controlled by ratepayers. It is governed by a board of five elected utility commissioners.
This is the first time since 2008 that BIPCo has filed an overall rate design change. For many years, BIPCo was exempted from many of the provisions of the Utility Restructuring Act, which decoupled energy producers from energy distributors. This was because of the unique nature of a company servicing an island with no transmission cable to connect it to a mainland energy grid.
The installation of the sea2shore transmission cable as part of the Block Island Wind Farm project made it possible to join the New England electric grid, and BIPCo turned off

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