Stricter federal oversight could help drive down the high cost of electricity, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and state officials.
Blumenthal said at a news briefing outside the state Capitol in Hartford on Monday that the cost of electricity is high in Connecticut, partly because consumers pay for the cost of transmission projects through the public benefits portion of their bills.
He said those projects have increased in the past few years because they are profitable for utilities.
“The amount has risen to about $1.2 billion, twenty times what it was less than 10 years ago. And it is estimated to rise to as much as $6 billion in the next few years based on what the utilities are planning,” Blumenthal said.
He dismissed the argument that the projects improve reliability or efficiency.
“Often they are superfluous,” he said. “They are done simply to fatten the bottom line of the utility companies.
The state’s largest utility, Eversource, reported a 10% increase in year-over-year profit earnings, making over $200 million in revenues from the transmission portion of the business,” said Claire Coleman, Connecticut’s consumer counsel.
Blumenthal has written to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking for more oversight to ensure that transmission projects are necessary and not being done to pad utility company profits.
