01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, October 13, 2005

This probably couldn't have come at a worse time. A customer credit that has been appearing every month on the bills of most National Grid (formerly Narragansett Electric) customers in Rhode Island is about to end.

The credit comes from $22.8 million in extra profits the utility company earned between Jan 1., 2000 and Oct. 31, 2004. National Grid's agreement with state regulators calls for the company to share profits -- earned beyond a certain amount -- with all of its 465,000 customers.

National Grid has been returning the $22.8 million through a customer credit on each monthly bill for the past 12 months. The monthly credit is 0.329 cents per kilowatt-hour, which amounts to about $1.71 for a typical customer that uses 500 kilowatt-hours a month.

The credit ends on the last day of the month. That will essentially mean an automatic rate increase on Nov. 1 of 2.4 percent for a typical customer. That's on top of the 12.4-percent rate hike approved by the PUC as of Oct. 1. Including that increase, bills for a typical customer will be $9.51 a month higher next month.

However, customers in Providence and East Providence won't notice any change on their bills because they never saw the customer credit in the first place. Officials in both cities decided to divert the money due its residents to partially finance the $16.7-million project to bury power lines as part of the Route 195 relocation.

-- Timothy C. Barmann