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At a time when families and businesses across Long Island are facing rising costs in nearly every area of life, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) is doing its part to keep electricity rates affordable. With our proposed 2026 budget, we’re keeping spending stable, resulting in a projected decrease in the average residential customer bill, while continuing to invest in a cleaner, more reliable electric grid.
LIPA’s mission is to provide reliable, affordable, and clean energy to our customers across Long Island and the Rockaways. As a nonprofit public utility, every dollar we spend and every dollar we save goes directly toward improving electric service and controlling costs for our customers.
Each year, our team builds a budget based on priorities that matter most to the 3 million people we serve and funds PSEG Long Island operations to enhance reliability, improve customer service, and plan for the energy transition ahead. And, most importantly, LIPA makes these investments with a focus on affordability.
While many utilities nationwide are raising rates to keep pace with commodity volatility, rising wholesale energy prices and load-driven infrastructure demands, Long Island’s average residential bills remain stable and below the rate of inflation.
In fact, according to the Energy Information Administration, electric bills in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have increased nearly 22% since 2022. However, with LIPA’s fiscally disciplined approach, customers will continue to be protected from the regional affordability challenges that have consistently plagued other utilities.
For 2026, we propose that total utility operating spending remain relatively flat, and customers will see no increase in their electric bills.
This outcome reflects LIPA’s thoughtful financial planning and careful management of operating costs, as well as its innovative use of financing tools, such as the Utility Debt Securitization Authority (UDSA). Through UDSA refinancing, competitive power-purchase agreements, and federal and state grant opportunities, LIPA saves customers hundreds of millions of dollars each year.
Equally important, these savings don’t come at the expense of reliability. We continue to invest in grid modernization, energy storage, offshore wind and distributed energy resources to prepare for the grid of the future.
In 2025, LIPA’s electric grid delivered exceptional reliability performance, with customers experiencing fewer than one outage per year on average–equivalent to 99.99% service availability. This performance ranks among the best in the nation for similarly sized utilities and has outperformed all New York State overhead electric utilities over the past five years.
This demonstrates the value of our record investments in storm hardening, vegetation management, technology modernization and more–totaling $9.4 billion over the past decade.
One of the most significant milestones shaping this year’s plan is the recently extended contract between LIPA and PSEG Long Island. The new agreement strengthens oversight, enhances cost controls and reduces management fees–producing an estimated $17 million in savings over the life of the extension. It also maintains rigorous performance metrics, linking compensation directly to results and introduces new transparency measures. These improvements reinforce a shared culture of accountability, ensuring that customers benefit from disciplined financial management and measurable performance metrics.
Looking ahead, 2026 will be a year in which LIPA refocuses on long-term strategic planning–a process that defines the priorities and investments needed to ensure Long Island’s grid remains resilient, flexible, and cost-effective as both energy technologies and customer needs evolve. Balancing reliability, sustainability and affordability will be at the heart of that plan.
By holding the line on spending today, we create the stability necessary to plan for the grid of tomorrow. And, perhaps most importantly, in an era of consistently rising costs, LIPA’s disciplined and transparent financial approach serves as a case study, demonstrating that reliability, affordability and clean energy can go hand in hand.
LIPA will hold public comment hearings on the proposed budget on Nov. 18 and Nov. 24. For information on how to attend these hearings and to read our full budget proposal, visit lipower.org.
Carrie Meek Gallagher serves as CEO of LIPA. She brings more than two decades of leadership experience in public utilities, environmental protection, regional planning and sustainability, most of it in service to the Long Island region.
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