Latest news with #UnitedIlluminating
Yahoo
02-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CT energy bill snarled by debate on consumer savings and regulatory power. What that means for you.
Energy legislation intended to cut consumer electric bills was stalled again Monday by ongoing disagreement over how much power the state's chief utility regulator would be allowed to wield. And as the debate over regulatory power dragged through another day, the savings consumers were promised they could find in their electric bills continued to shrink. Agreement on both power and savings remained elusive Monday evening as legislators continued to debate both questions while racing toward the General Assembly's Wednesday adjournment deadline. But it appeared legislative proposals that just weeks ago would have sliced as much as $800 million from the public benefits portion of consumer electric bills had been reduced to $180 million each for customers of Eversource and United Illuminating. The numbers are likely to change before the state Senate and House vote. For an average Eversource customer, a drop from $800 million to $180 million in public benefit costs means a monthly drop in the average customer bill from about $20 to about $5 a month, a company spokesman said. The savings could be greater for the far fewer United Illuminating customers. Customers of both utilities pay about $1 billion a year in public benefit costs, which are state mandated programs to develop carbon free electric generation, promote conservation and help pay the electric bills of customers unable to do so. Defeat of proposals to move a higher proportion of public benefit costs off electric bills by bonding them or paying for them with general taxation is seen as a victory for environmental and conservation advocates. 'It amounts to a less significant reduction,' House Republican Leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said. 'It is something but it is not as much as I would like to have seen. The political fight over how much control Public Utility Regulatory Authority Chairman Marissa Gillett has over electric regulation has been simmering for more than a year. But it has flared up as lawmakers struggle to deliver on comprehensive energy legislation they promised when record heart and market forces conspired to send rates soaring last summer. Under Gillett, PURA has been in an extended fight with state utilities. Eversource and United Illuminating assert in lawsuits and regulatory filings that PURA has shown an anti-utility bias under Gillett and has issued legally questionable regulatory decisions resulting in repeated reductions in their credit ratings. The two electric utilities have sued PURA, claiming that Gillett has squeezed fellow commissioners out of the decision making process and is effectively breaking the law by making unilateral decisions. Candelora, backed by House Speaker Matt Ritter, D-Hartford, inserted language in the energy bill that would require all commissioners to vote to appoint hearing officers, to vote on all questions before the authority and to make all votes available for public inspection. Gillett advocates in PURA, the legislature and elsewhere have tried — but so far failed — to change Candelora's language in ways that some lawyers have said would not only preserve her power to direct decisions, but retroactively neutralize the utility suit. On Monday, language had been inserted in the latest legislative draft that appeared to be another effort to undermine Candelora's proposals. 'There is a sentence in there that is appointing her as the administrator and the way that language is written it would de facto make her the presiding officer on all the cases,' Candelora said. 'So I have had to push back on that. I am waiting to hear back.I don't believe PURA was ever intended to have one person presiding over it.' 'This bill is not going to run in the house if it is not fixed,' Candelora said. Ritter has agreed, saying the legislation would not be sent to the House without Candlora's support.
Yahoo
13-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CT legislative committee gives PURA nominee a favorable vote. He's a familiar face in government.
Gov. Ned Lamont's latest appointee to the newly controversial Public Utilities Regulatory Authority sailed through the first step of the confirmation process Thursday, getting a warm reception from former colleagues on the Legislature's Executive Nominations Committee. David Arconti of Danbury, a former state representative and lobbyist for United Illuminating, won a favorable vote from the committee and his appointment, along with the reappointment of PURA Chairman Marissa Gillett, now moves to a vote of the full General Assembly, which has been tentatively scheduled for early next month. If confirmed, as expected, Arconti will join a formerly little-noticed utility regulatory agency that has figured prominently in the news recently as the result of an angry, year and one-half long standoff with the utility industry over rates. State Rep. Dave Yaccarino, a North Haven Republican, told Arconti that PURA has 'tarnished' its reputation in the dispute with the utilities. 'I think we have to mend the relationship with utilities, like it or not,' Yaccarino said. 'I think it has to be mended because we need to work together.' Arconti, United Illuminating's former vice president for government relations, said he believes the relationship remains healthy. He has been serving as an interim PURA commissioner since being appointed by Lamont in August. 'There always needs to be some tension between the PURA regulator and the utilities,' Arconti said. 'I don't necessarily need them to like me. But they need to respect me and chair Gillett and Commissioner Caron and the staff and vice versa. And I can tell you, if you were to watch one of our hearings, everyone is very respectful of one another.' Disagreement between utilities and regulators is the result of a series of rate decisions that the companies contend has unfairly prevented them from recovering what they invest in their Connecticut systems through customers rates. What credit bureaus have called the state's negative regulatory climate has led to a succession of credit downgrades across the local utility industry. The value of Eversource stock has fallen sharply against the industry average and United Illuminating disclosed this week that recent rate decisions caused its return on equity for 2024 to fall to 3.55 percent, crippling its ability to access capital markets. PURA supporters, including Lamont, endorse recent rate decisions made under the chairmanship of Lamont appointee Marissa Gillett, saying they are holding utilities to account after years worrying more about investor dividends that customer rates. PURA chief clears confirmation hurdle after 11th hour compromise to expand, restructure agency PURA's limited role in controlling consumer electric rates came into focus last summer when residential bills spiked because of power consumption linked to record heat and payments connected to a state contract to purchase power from Dominion's Millstone nuclear power station in Waterford. Arconti acknowledged during questioning Thursday that consumer electric rates are determined largely by the limited energy supply across New England, something over which state regulators and the utilities have no control. If Gillett and Arconti were confirmed next month, they would join Commissioner Michael Caron, who has not been renominated by Lamont. Lamont and the legislature's leadership reached an agreement last month to expand PURA to five members, which is the membership required by state law, but the agreement is not scheduled to take effect for more than a year.
Yahoo
19-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
United Illuminating increasing public benefits charge in 2025
ORANGE, Conn. (WTNH) — United Illuminating (UI) is increasing its public benefits charge for customers in 2025, according to a press release. Legislators at odds over electric rates after Energy and Technology Committee holds first meeting of the year UI calculates that beginning in May 2025, customers will see a 0.10% increase, equating to approximately 26 cents per month. It's important for our customers to know that, as a distribution-only company, we do not control or profit from the Public Benefits Charge, which funds sustainability and hardship programs that have been passed by state policymakers,' Frank Reynolds, president and CEO of UI, said. 'We are required by state law to implement the programs contained in the Public Benefits Charge. If customers have questions about these charges, we encourage them to contact their elected officials.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
06-02-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Winter storm leaves schools across CT closed. More snow is on tap for the weekend.
A mixed precipitation storm led to hundreds of school closings across Connecticut on Thursday. The snow began falling in the morning hours and was expected to leave as many as four inches of accumulation in most parts of Connecticut before changing over to a wintry mix by the early afternoon hours, according to the National Weather Service. The sleet and freezing rain in the afternoon hours was expected to leave a light glaze of ice, the weather service said. A Winter Weather Advisory remained in effect until 7 p.m. in Hartford, Tolland and Windham Counties. The storm led to hundreds of school closings across the state including those in Hartford, Glastonbury, Cromwell, Bloomfield, Bristol, East Hartford, Farmington, Berlin, Manchester, New Britain and numerous other cities and towns. In Meriden, officials closed all city offices in addition to the schools, citing a 'very tricky storm, including snow, sleet, freezing rain and rain,' a spokesperson for the city said. According to Eversource, 52 customers were without power in East Lyme as of 10:30 a.m. Multiple minor outages had been reported in the morning hours in towns around the state including those in Hartford, Redding, Tolland, Windham and Windsor. The outage in Windsor had been resolved by mid-morning. United Illuminating did not report any outages as of the same time. According to the Connecticut Department of Transportation, crashes were reported in the morning hours on Interstate 84 East in Southington, I-84 East in West Hartford and Route 9 South in Middletown. The crashes led to shoulder or lane closures. A bigger storm could be on its way to Connecticut over the weekend According to the National Weather Service, snow is expected to move into the state Saturday night and could dump between four to eight inches. The snow is expected to mix with sleet by Sunday morning before changing back to just snow and tapering off in the early afternoon hours.
