United Illuminating filed a notice with PURA — the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority — that it will seek a three-year rate increase for customers. That includes a 28% increase over the first year.
Connecticut Consumer Counsel Clare Colman said she’ll carefully examine the details of the request and will offer PURA an alternative that prioritizes ratepayers’ welfare.
State Attorney General William Tong said he will aggressively scrutinize every charge and assumption in search of savings.
UI told regulators it hasn’t increased rates since 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
United Illuminating has issued this statement:
UI’s last distribution rate case was in 2016 and UI’s customers’ distribution rates have not increased since January 1, 2019, and since this time inflation rates — the cost of doing business — has increased over 7%. Additionally, UI has and continues to make significant investments necessary to continue to provide safe and reliable service to its customers all while keeping rates stable.
UI’s anticipated rate application will enable UI to build a stronger, smarter and more resilient grid, focused on maintaining reliability and strengthening the resiliency of the system to meet customer needs and evolving expectations. Our goal in this rate case is to spread the proposed total rate increase over three years at an average total bill increase of approximately 5% per year across all rate classes, which represents an increase that is less than the current rate of inflation.
The average residential customer (with a bill of $188) will see an increase of $9.69 for the 5% bill increase.
