Fayetteville residents will be shelling out less money for electricity in the years to come as the result of a decision by the board of the city’s public utility Wednesday.

Starting in May, Fayetteville Public Works Commission customers will see a 4.7% decrease in electric rates during nonpeak hours, the PWC commission decided.

Residential customers and small- and medium-size businesses will see a reduction in electric rates for the 20 nonpeak hours of the day.

Nonpeak hours from November through March are 10 a.m. to 6 a.m. Nonpeak hours for the summer are 7 p.m. to 3 p.m. Weekends and PWC-observed holidays also are considered nonpeak hours.

The rate decrease is the result of negotiations PWC has been having with Duke Energy, which provides wholesale power to PWC, Fayetteville’s electric company. PWC’s wholesale contract with Duke, which runs through 2042, would have allowed PWC to back out of the deal and find another wholesale supplier if PWC was not pleased with the rates. PWC hired a consultant that determined that based on the market, customers in Fayetteville were paying too much, so Duke agreed to reduce its wholesale rates.

David W. Trego, general manager of PWC, said the utility used its ability to change its wholesale supplier as leverage to get the rate decrease.