Last modified: Saturday, June 24, 2006 12:34 AM EDT Paying for the Cape Mansfield, North electric customers foot bill for power plant they can't use BY MICHAEL GELBWASSER/SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Electric customers in Mansfield and North Attleboro will help foot the bill for a power plant on Cape Cod Canal, but won't see so much as a flicker of light for their trouble. The surcharge, which applies to municipal elec tric utilities, is being assessed by a consortium of electric suppliers to bolster electric capaci ty on the Cape, which has been subject to brownouts and black outs during periods of peak demand. The cost to the aver age rate payer will be nominal, but that has n't stopped local offi cials from fuming. `` Can they make us pay this?'' Mansfield Light Commissioner David McCarter said. `` God bless the people who live on Cape Cod, but what do we have to do with a blackout on the Cape?'' Mansfield Electric Director Gary Babin said the average residential monthly bill of $60 will go up by $5 in October to pay for Mansfield's $1.9 million bill from ISO New England, a regional power transmis sion organization. North Attleboro Electric General Manager James Moynihan said North Attleboro will fund its share, about $1 million, from this year's electric budget. Babin said the $117 million project will provide backup power on the Cape. The surcharge does not apply to National Grid or NStar. ISO New England spokesman Ken McDonnell said Friday that while Mansfield and North Attleboro are not Cape communities, `` technically, it's not out of their area.'' The costs are being passed along in accordance with an agreement between ISO New England and the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Co., a consortium of more than 20 municipal utilities. Mansfield and North Attleboro are part of a Southeastern Massachusetts region within the consortium, McDonnell said. Local electric departments and Cape members are sharing in the cost of the Cape plant, McDonnell said. Babin and Moynihan said municipal electric officials are strongly considering appealing the surcharge to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In the meantime, Babin said he expects the utilities will pay the Cape bills while any legal proceedings are under way. McDonnell said he was unaware of any municipal light departments having filed an appeal, so far. `` They certainly have every right to take this up with (the commission),'' he said.