It was fully expected that we would all experience a large jump in electric rates in March. Because most of our electricity is generated by natural gas, and our delivery mechanism for getting the gas to the power plants isn’t adequate, we were bracing for a strong electric shock this month.

But Tuesday, we learned that our electricity supply costs are actually going down.

We can thank the Saudis and Kuwaitis for that.

The PUC announced that the new rates would actually be significantly lower than last year’s rates.

CMP residential and small business customers who receive the standard offer supply service will get a new standard offer price of 6.54 cents per kilowatt-hour, compared to the old standard offer price of 7.56 cents, about 13 percent lower than last year’s, and a whole lot lower than expected.

Those who are on other energy plans won’t be affected by the new standard offer rate.

“The standard offer prices set this week reflect the best bids received in a strongly competitive auction process,” according to Commission Chairman Mark Vannoy. “We are pleased that retail customers will benefit from recent trends in energy markets that have driven wholesale prices in New England down over the past few months” said Vannoy. Vannoy noted that it is difficult to say whether these recent trends will continue, given continued strong demand for natural gas in the region and the region’s limited capacity to transport natural gas.

Oil’s collapse on the futures market has pulled down the cost across the wholesale energy market, which has led to lower prices for CMP customers. Emera Maine customers, downeast, are also expecting a lower price now.

There will still be a small increase on the CMP delivery side, but it’s a minor note compared to the increase that was expected on the energy side. That increase was expected to be in the double digits; instead, we had a double digit decrease.

Happy news for those who need electricity, especially in what is likely to continue to be a cold winter and early spring.

And for those who have done the work to improve their efficiency, that will mean an actual decrease in energy bills, not just holding steady. Maybe it will be enough of a decrease to do some additional efficiency work so that when prices go up, it won’t be such a sticker shock.

And perhaps in the meantime, pipelines can be built, or agreements can be made with Hydro-Quebec, and transmission lines can be constructed to get their inexpensive hydropower to Maine. One note of caution is that natural gas supply may actually fall because it becomes unprofitable to get it out of the ground as it is currently being done. But that’s an issue for another day.

Enjoy it while it lasts; the prices may creep up if oil rebounds. But for now, we’re pleased to report that, in CMP’s words, “it’s nice when something goes down in price for a change.”