Home electricity bills may be increasing, but some southwestern Connecticut businesses are shocked at how high their bills have gone up.

Companies that use United Illuminating (UI) are looking at an increase of nearly 70 percent and that increase could be passed along to consumers. The new electricity increases for UI commercial customers took effect on January bills, but the February bills are higher, due in part to the first blast of extremely cold weather of the year.

One Fairfield doctor says she is doing everything she can to lower her electric bill, but her bill still jumped from $522 in January to more than $1,008 in February. She says she already increased her rates last year due to higher electric bills, and she doesn?t want to do it again. She adds that it is unfair to her patients and is hoping the rest of the winter is mild.