Nearly 85% of Connecticut voters who are 50 and older say the state needs more regulations to protect customers from third-party electric suppliers.
Suppliers automatically re-enroll customers into energy plans and allow towns to enroll residents as a group without prior consent. The survey of more than 1,000 voters showed most opposed that practice.
“We’ve had multiple years where we have passed legislation and yet it seems like the bad practices are getting more egregious,” said John Erlingheuser, who heads state advocacy at AARP.
Connecticut deregulated its retail electric market in 2000 to allow for competition and bring down prices. In 2015 the state also banned variable rate contracts that change year to year.
But Erlingheuser says customers still aren’t able to find relief.
“There are right now almost 30,000 customers in the state who are still on a variable rate contract that were grandfathered in, and these folks are continuing to be re-enrolled in these variable rate contracts and almost guaranteed that virtually every single one is paying more than the standard service rate, which shows you why this practice is so bad.”
Connecticut consumers using third-party electric suppliers paid about $240 million more than consumers who use Eversource or United Illuminating. Most survey participants now support legislation that hold third-party suppliers to standardized rates.
