Norwich – Norwich Public Utilities will announce a "double digit" percentage reduction in customers' electricity bills Wednesday morning as a result of a significant drop in wholesale electric prices and cost cutting, utility officials said today.

Utility officials will announce the reduction during a Wednesday breakfast meeting with business customers at 7:30 a.m. at Comfort Suites on Otrobando Avenue. NPU spokesman Michael Hughes said this morning that utility officials are calculating the exact percentages today and will have specifics for a press conference scheduled for 11 a.m. Wednesday at NPU headquarters at 16 S. Golden St.

The savings will be effective immediately in the November electric bills to business and residential customers, Hughes said.

The drop in the Purchase Power Adjustment and "sound fiscal management" cost cutting at NPU and the Connecticut Municipal Electric Cooperative, comprised of all municipally owned utilities in the state, contributed to the reduction, Hughes said.

The PPA is a mechanism NPU uses to bill electric customers what it costs the utility to provide power. If wholesale electric prices drop, NPU passes those savings onto Norwich electric customers, Hughes said.