Star filed for electric rate cuts yesterday that would save the average residential customer about $6 a month starting in January.
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Citing both the falling cost of fuels used by power plants and steady progress in paying down old bills from before industry deregulation in 1998, NStar filed new rates with the Department of Telecommunications and Energy for its Boston Edison, ComElectric, and Cambridge Electric units for its ''standard offer'' customers, the 70 to 80 percent of customers who opened an account before March 1998.
Counting both the cost of energy and delivery-oriented charges, the typical homeowner using 500 kilowatt hours monthly would pay $5.97 less if they are in the Edison service territory, $5.95 less in ComElectric areas, and $6.13 less in Cambridge, NStar said. Although it operates all three utilities under the NStar brand, they continue to have different rate structures.
Separately, Massachusetts Electric, the state's biggest utility with 1.2 million customers in 168 cities and towns, filed a rate-recalculation measure that should cut typical customers' bills by about 3.6 percent, on top of rate cuts pending because of reduced energy charges.
After a huge run-up in gas and electric bills earlier this year when natural gas prices hit a peak in world markets, utilities across the state have been cutting rates, although in most cases they are still higher than before the 1998 restructuring law that promised a 15 percent across-the-board rate cut. NStar said its five recent gas and electric rate cuts, if adopted, will save customers the equivalent of $450 million annually.
NStar said it is also reducing the ''transition charge'' - which covers the cost of failed investments in power plants and above-market power contracts passed on to consumers as part of the 1998 deregulation act.
The new rates, which the DTE is expected to approve, run from Jan. 1 through June 30, and work out as follows for residential ''standard offer'' customers:
Boston Edison's power rate would drop from 7.445 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6.376 cents. All other charges would drop from 7.842 cents to 7.718.
In ComElectric territory, which includes much of southeastern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, the standard offer power rate would drop from 6.351 cents to 5.626 cents. All other charges would drop from 9.406 cents to 8.942 cents.
Cambridge Electric's power rate is slated to go from 6.351 cents to 5.626 cents, and the delivery cost from 7.282 cents to 6.782 cents.
Mass. Electric also filed so-called true-up rate adjustments for delivery and stranded costs. For standard offer customers using 500 kilowatt hours, the new rate adjustment plus the cost-of-energy reduction sought last month would lower the total bill by $7.31, from $62.69 to $55.38. Default service customers would see a $2.28 drop, from $64.12 to $61.84.
DTE spokesman Rob Wilson said the department cannot comment on the filings until it acts on them. Generally, the DTE approves utility rate changes without any substantial changes.
Peter Howe can be reached by e-mail at howe@globe.com
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