On Wednesday, a measure was passed that may lead to a higher charge for United Illuminating and Eversource customers.
“I got a family at home and it’s definitely hitting my paycheck a lot,” New Britain’s Javier Cardoso said.
On Wednesday, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) passed its annual Rate Adjustment Mechanisms (RAM) for both United Illuminating and Eversource.
“It is to reconcile the cost of public policy programs that state legislators, DEEP and PURA have required UI and Eversource to implement,” UI spokesperson Sarah Wall Fliotsos said.
She said as a result, the average UI customer can expect to pay about $30 more a month in the public benefits section of their bill from July 1 to April of 2025.
Get Connecticut local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Connecticut newsletters.
“The size of the increase was driven by PURA pushing costs off to the future and was avoidable,” Eversource spokesperson Jamie Ratliff said. “Again, last year we actively advocated on behalf of customers to prevent this rate shock.”
Eversource customers will also see increased rates in the public benefits portion for that 10-month period beginning this July.
Both companies, however, expect the rise in public benefit costs to coincide with a decrease in supply costs this summer.
Local
“The public benefits portion of the bill combined with that volatile energy supply cost make up nearly 60% of a customer’s bill which we do not control nor do we profit from,” Ratliff said.
PURA Chairman Marissa Gillett voted against this particular rate adjustment. In her dissent, she said in part:
“This decision could have struck a fair balance by allowing the recovery of this substantial liability over a period of two to three years, rather than just 10 months.”
Eversource said it is still determining the exact monthly increase that customers will see as a result of PURA’s vote.
“We do hope in the future to work with our legislators and policymakers to mitigate rate shock for our customers going forward because rate shock like this due to these public policy programs–it needs to stop,” Fliotsos said.
