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Eversource is proposing a new rate of 12.6 cents per kilowatt hour starting in August, the company announced on Thursday -- a 38 percent decrease from the current rate of 20.2 cents per kilowatt hour. That rate has to be approved by state regulators before it's finalized, but it would save the average household about $46 per month.

Eversource is the state's largest utility, but it isn't the only company lowering its energy prices. Unitil's new rates would be 13.25 cents per kilowatt hour, almost half of its current 25.9 cents rate.

Those high prices were driven by the high cost of natural gas, at a time when the global market was volatile in the wake of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. New England is very reliant on natural gas for both electricity and heat, making the region extra sensitive to fluctuations in price.

Now the cost of natural gas has come down, and that's translating into lower energy prices here.

"With the unprecedented volatility in the energy markets hitting our customers hard in the last year, we're pleased to let them know that some relief is coming with the new supply rate in August," Penni Conner, Eversource's executive vice president for Customer Experience and Energy Strategy, said in a statement.

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