BANGOR – Businesses and industries in most of the state should save about $100 million in energy costs in the next year because of new standard offer rates set Monday by Maine’s Public Utilities Commission.

And the PUC is saying companies can do even better by shopping around and buying power on the competitive market.

On Monday, the PUC set standard offer rates for medium and industrial customers in the territories served by Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. and Central Maine Power Co. Standard offer is the default rate electricity users pay for the power if they have not chosen another company to sell it to them.

The charges are at least 40 percent less than the current standard offer rates, and go into effect for one year starting March 1. The names of the companies selling the standard-offer-rate electricity will not be disclosed for about two weeks.

In CMP’s territory, the average standard offer rate for medium customers is 4.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, down from the current average rate of 8.5 cents. The average rate for industrial users is 4.1 cents, down from an average of 8.2 cents.

In Bangor Hydro’s territory, the average standard offer rate for medium customers is 4.2 cents, down from 7.3 cents. For industrials, the average rate is 4 cents, down from 7.7 cents.

Standard offer rates are supposed to be benchmarks that competitive power sellers view as the rate to beat. If they can do that, the power brokers try to sell their lower electricity rates to customers.

When setting the standard offer rates Monday, PUC Chairman Tom Welch said given the low cost for electricity right now, he hopes the standard offer rates weren’t set too low to the point where competition among power suppliers stops altogether. The set rates were “designed to get a market price, not an artificially deflated price,” he said.

“The ultimate objective of all this … is to have a vibrant, competitive market for all customers,” said Commissioner Steve Diamond.

Since last year, electricity prices have been falling at a phenomenal pace, he said. And they may not have hit bottom yet, he added.

By setting the standard offer rates for one year only, instead of two or three years as in the past, Welch said he thinks the medium- and industrial-sized businesses would be “well served” to take advantage of low rates from power suppliers and sign up for longer-term contracts with them.

“I think this is a very good time for Mainers to be paying less for energy,” Welch said.

Many businesses already have been doing that. When prices began falling in the last several months, many companies started shopping around for cheaper power, Welch said.

According to PUC statistics, more than 40 percent of the power sold to medium-size businesses, and more than 85 percent sold to industries in CMP’s service territory, is purchased from competitive power suppliers.

In Bangor Hydro’s service territory, more than 20 percent of the power sold to medium-size businesses and more than 70 percent sold to industries comes from power suppliers.

PUC Commissioner William Nugent, during the hearing, suggested that businesses that haven’t even thought about shopping for cheaper power rates start doing so now. He stopped short, though, of actually telling them to do that.

“I’m just saying they give it some consideration,” Nugent said.