Electricity bills will decline slightly for customers of Central Maine Power Co. after state regulators on Tuesday approved 2025 rates that reflect stable natural gas prices, the main driver of power generation in New England.

With global energy markets in flux, low prices may not last.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission approved a standard offer rate – the default supply price for nine of 10 home and small-business customers who don’t contract for electricity with competitive energy providers – of 10.61 cents a kilowatt-hour, down from 10.64 cents a kWh. A customer who uses an average of 550 kWh a month would pay about $58.36, down just 16 cents from the current rate. The standard offer accounts for half of a customer’s monthly bill. CMP serves about 635,000 customers.

PUC Chairman Philip L. Bartlett II acknowledged the pace of inflation that has boosted prices on virtually all goods and services.

“We know the economy and especially electricity prices have been top-of-mind for consumers,” he said in a statement. “This was a robust bidding process, and we are confident that we have secured the best rate possible.”

Dan Dolan, president of the New England Power Generators Association, credited a tamer natural gas market after several years of volatility in global energy markets caused by Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, a major natural gas producer.

“We’ve seen very low natural gas prices for the last year or so,” he said. “I think that’s been a major stabilizing effect.”

Nationally, natural gas prices were up 2% over the last 12 months, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, slightly below the 2.6% increase in prices overall. Natural gas plays an outsized role in New England’s energy mix, accounting for 55% of generation in 2023, according to preliminary data from ISO-New England, the region’s grid operator.

Dolan said prices are again becoming more volatile as European nations wean themselves off Russian natural gas. The U.S. Energy Information Administration is projecting a 33% increase in natural gas prices in 2025 over this year, due mainly to increased liquefied natural gas exports in response to strong international demand. North America’s export capacity is expected to more than double in the next four years.

Dan Burgess, director of the Governor’s Energy Office, said diversifying the state’s energy supply to “include more locally produced clean energy” will help mitigate volatility and provide stability of prices and supply.

The less-than-1% rate cut for next year is much smaller than last year’s 35% drop. Electricity rates have moved like a roller coaster. Falling energy demand during the pandemic helped cut standard offer rates to about 7 cents a kWh in 2020 and about 6 cents in 2021. In 2022, however, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine roiled global natural gas markets, causing rates to nearly double.

Regulators approved a higher 2025 rate for Versant Power’s Maine Public District: 11.65 cents per kWh, up from 11.29 cents currently. A Versant customer who uses an average 500 kWh would pay about $1.84 more a month. The PUC will determine the standard offer rate Wednesday for Versant’s Bangor Hydro District.