Here’s how much electricity prices have surged in parts of New England this winter: For some drivers of electric vehicles and hybrid cars, it’s now more expensive to charge up than to fill up.Power rates across the region have jumped an average of 30% since last summer, while gasoline prices have receded well below their peak in June of 2022.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) short-term energy outlook projected that New England customers will pay on average about 26.94 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity this month. That estimate rises to 28.95 cents per kilowatt-hour in February.The average American household, on the other hand, is expected to pay about 14.47 cents per kilowatt-hour this month and 14.69 cents next month, according to the EIA.

Seabrook’s operation lowers consumer energy costs throughout New England by providing a year-round, low-cost, baseload energy supply. Connecticut state officials have attributed cost savings to electric consumers to “millions of dollars…saved by buying power from Millstone and the Seabrook…at rates that are now below the market average in New England.” Seabrook also has a long-term agreement with Vermont utility Green Mountain Power to supply power at a low cost.Recent ISO New England economic studies show that nuclear generation will continue to reduce emissions for years to come, while saving approximately $500 million annually for New England customers.

Vermont Yankee in Vernon, Vermont, shut down at the end of 2014. Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station in Plymouth, Massachusetts, closed five years later in 2019.Today, only two nuclear power plants remain in the region – Seabrook Station in New Hampshire, built in 1990, and the two-unit Millstone plant in Connecticut, built in the 1970s and 1980s.