Utility company requests rate freeze through 2014

After raising electric rates 3.8 percent and gas rates 1 percent for 2013, Madison Gas & Electric has filed a request with the state to freeze rates through the end of 2014.

The average homeowner is paying $4.55 a month, or $54.60 a year, extra for gas and electric compared with a year ago, according to data on the utility’s website.

The utility, in its application to the state Public Service Commission, credited its own “belt-tightening” and other factors that make a rate freeze possible.

The state commission still has to approve the freeze.