Connecticut Light & Power household customers will receive a New Year's gift next month when their residential monthly electric bills decline by nearly 7 percent.

The average household decline will be $9.23 a month, reflecting an expected charge per kilowatt hour of 17.8 cents, down from 19.1 cents, the rate that was set one year ago.

Those figures may change slightly when a final calculation is made in January, state Department of Public Utility Control spokesman Philip Dukes said Thursday. "The final rates ... will be set by the first billing period in January," Dukes said.

But the changes will give ratepayers a second straight year of declines after years of runups. The decline for households one year ago was 5.4 percent.

The amount will vary for other classes of rates, such as small businesses, manufacturers and churches and schools, but all categories should see declines in their bills.

A sharp drop in wholesale electricity prices that CL&P pays to generators is behind the rate decrease. Separately, as of Jan. 1 ratepayers are no longer responsible for debt payments related to the restructuring of the electric industry a decade ago.

The overall decline is happening even though CL&P's distribution rates - the price associated with moving power from substations to end users - are going up by more than 14 percent.

The rate decline would have been larger, but electric ratepayers are being hit with a new state tax as of Jan. 1.

The tax, which adds about $3.50 to an average household's electric bill, was approved by the governor and lawmakers this spring to boost the state budget.

Without the new tax, residential bills on Jan. 1 would have declined by 9.5 percent.

For Jim and Martha DiTomasso of Wethersfield, owners of a 1,450 square foot house, the rate savings are welcome. But Jim DiTomasso, a salesman at M&M Produce in Hartford, said, "I don't think it will make a significant difference. ... At first glance you look at a savings of $100 a year and say 'Wow, that's pretty good.' But then you realize it's only $9 a month. I don't know where I'd put that - maybe buy a couple extra gallons of gas."

Even with the decreased costs, Connecticut probably will retain its ranking as the state with the second-highest rates in the continental United States, after New York, which in August had an average of 19.03 cents per kilowatt hour. The Connecticut average was 19 cents. New Jersey was No. 3 at 17.3 cents.

January's electric bills reflect an increase of $101 million for CL&P to improve substations, power poles and wires, Dukes said. CL&P is a subsidiary of Hartford-based Northeast Utilities.

The costs associated with generating electricity are linked to the price of oil and natural gas, which fell very sharply in 2008, but price changes for ratepayers is smoothed out over several years because CL&P buys long-term contracts.