Sen. Harding: “The family budget hits to ratepayers will keep on coming.”

CT utility United Illuminating to ask for electric rate increase

Hearst CT

The United Illuminating Co. notified Connecticut utility regulators Monday that it will file for a distribution rate increase that would add between $25 and $30 to the average residential customer’s electric bill.

In a letter sent to the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, UI President Frank Reynolds said the increase is needed because of a regulatory ruling by agency officials in August 2023 that officials with the utility are currently challenging in court. Reynolds wrote that, if approved, the rate increase would be implemented on Nov. 1, 2025.

“These incremental revenues are critically needed to support more than 350 major infrastructure projects across UI’s service area, the majority of which will be located in and serve disadvantaged communities,” he wrote.

The proposed increase comes as the rising cost of electricity has become a hot button political issue, with Republican lawmakers calling on Gov. Ned Lamont to convene a special session to relieve ratepayers.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said the increase that UI is proposing would actually boost the total bill of the average customer by 9.3 percent overall if approved and increase the distribution rate by 34 percent. Tong called UI’s announcement a “revenue grab (that) is a tone-deaf slap in the face to Connecticut families.”

The average residential customer in the 17 towns that UI serves currently pays about $275 per month for 750 kilowatt hours of usage. The company has about 341,000 customers in all rate classes.

“Electric rates are through the roof right now and consumers cannot afford to pay more,” Tong said. “United Illuminating asked for and received a revenue increase just last year. They did not get everything they asked for because their absurd $130.7 million application was exorbitant and unsupported by facts and evidence.”

Tong said the proposed rate increase “is yet another bad faith maneuver and an insult to all the Connecticut families struggling right now to keep their lights on and pay these skyrocketing bills.”

After UI officials announced their plan on Monday, state Senators Ryan Fazio, R-Greenwich, Tony Hwang, R- Fairfield and Sen. Stephen Harding, R-Brookfield, issued a statement criticizing the Democratic majority in the Connecticut General Assembly of failing to look out for the best interests of residents.

“The family budget hits to ratepayers will keep on coming if Connecticut’s state elected officials continue to do nothing about this emergency,” the statement said in part. “In other words: ‘Get used to it. Grin and bear it.’ Democrats control all levers of political power in Connecticut; they don’t see the need, or the urgency, to hold a special session at the State Capitol to stop the bleeding.”

The $105 million in additional revenue that UI is seeking represents the difference between the amount that the company sought in the rate case that is now being challenged in court and what PURA approved, according to Sarah Wall Fliotsos, a spokeswoman with the utility.

When the rate case filing is made, UI officials will argue that they need the additional money to keep their electric distribution network in good order. Of the $105 million in additional revenue that UI’s filing will seek, $41 million of that amount is for projects that are already serving customers but haven’t been included in current electric rates.

Fliotsos said the rate increase is urgently needed because PURA’s August 2023 ruling deferred cost recovery of many projects.

‘We continue to invest in the system,” she said. “What PURA has done has forced our hand into doing this.”

https://www.ctinsider.com/business/article/ui-electric-rate-increase-19804835.php