Some charges on electric bills are set to increase this summer. Connecticut regulators Wednesday approved an electric rate adjustment for utilities Eversource and United Illuminating.
United Illuminating said the average customer will see a monthly bill increase of roughly $30.
A statement from Eversource did not indicate the amount of a bill increase, but the company said it understands how difficult the increase will be for customers.
Utilities say the latest round of rate adjustments are pass-through costs they do not control, which are needed to help recoup expenses for policies enacted by lawmakers.
But rate hike requests have generated pushback from advocates and Connecticut elected officials, who say the state’s electric rates are not sustainable and that bills are already too high.
On Wednesday, the state’s three-member Public Utilities Regulatory Authority voted 2-1 in favor of the rate adjustments with Chairman Marissa Gillett voting against the increase.
The adjustments will be finalized in coming weeks and last for 10 months starting on July 1.
But Gillett said that the bill increase should have been spread out over a longer time period to lessen the impact on customers in a state with some of the highest electric costs in the nation.
“This decision could have struck a fair balance by allowing the recovery of this substantial liability over a period of 2-3 years, rather than just 10 months,” Gillett wrote in a dissent over the rate adjustments. “This would provide timely recovery for the utilities and reduce the rate shock for ratepayers.”
“Instead, customers will bear the brunt of this extraordinary volatility and anomalous conditions over the course of an unreasonably short period of time given the magnitude of costs at stake,” she wrote.
This story was first published April 17, 2024 by Connecticut Public.