Invest Plan FAQs

Ensuring the security of our energy infrastructure and our customers’ private information is a priority for our company. We are vigilant against threats to our facilities, our customers’ personal information, and the technology for controlling our electricity and natural gas systems.

With the rapid growth of large and small installations of solar panels, wind turbines and energy storage devices, it is essential that we continue to make our transmission and distribution systems - as well as our substations that connect the two systems - smarter and more resilient. Further, the distribution system must be better able to accommodate a two-way flow of power so excess power from residential and small-business generation systems can flow to the grid.

By continuing to invest in technology for our energy delivery system, we can achieve these objectives while preserving and, in some cases, improving overall reliability and power quality.

RG&E has an excellent natural gas safety record and is far ahead of many utilities in replacing leak-prone pipes. To ensure that we continue to provide safe, reliable natural gas service to you, it is appropriate to accelerate the replacement of the remaining cast iron and bare steel mains.

For example, in the 2010 review of our rates, we projected annual costs for property taxes, and those amounts were then collected through rates. Over the years, we were able to reduce our tax payments by pursuing reductions based on declining property values or equipment obsolescence. We continued to collect the projected amounts through rates, but we set those surpluses aside until they could be returned to our customers.

We have been effective at managing our costs, and the savings have gradually accumulated since the last rate review in 2010. We have tracked those savings and set them aside for our next rate proceeding, when we can return the benefit of those savings to customers.

For an average RG&E residential electricity customer using 600 kilowatt-hours per month and taking supply from the company, the monthly bill will decrease in the first year but increase an average of about 2% per year over the three years. That’s a decrease of approximately 31 cents (-0.3%) in year one, and increases of $2.39 (2.5%) in year two and $2.84 (2.9%) in year three.

For an average RG&E residential natural gas customer using 940 therms per year, and taking supply from the company, the monthly bill will increase about 2% per year over the three years. That’s approximately $1.83 (2.3%) in year one, $1.60 (2.0%) in year two and $1.95 (2.3%) in year three.