Lawmakers: : What’s the hullabaloo on electric rates and what does it mean for you?

Many folks have been watching with rapt attention as a Connecticut public utility company and its surrogates tried to undermine the current electric rate case, suggesting it is “punitive,” “an overreach,” or “lacking constitutionality.”

In the case of Avangrid’s request for a large rate hike for their Connecticut subsidiary, United Illuminating, there were allegedly charities that benefited from their donations and Avangrid’s employees supporting them with PURA, Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Connecticut’s decision-maker on utility issues, to grant the rate hike. This is according to the Energy Policy Institute in its report of August 23. United Illuminating supplies power to 17 towns in New Haven and Fairfield Counties.

We would argue that for decades utility companies have benefited from opacity caused by the complexity of ratemaking. There is a dearth of sources of credible, unbiased information on energy policy as a whole, let alone ratemaking. These cases are time-consuming, technical, and balance the needs of diverse stakeholders, the ratepayers, the utility companies, shareholders, and investors. Only a small number of people are well versed in ratemaking topics. Some of these people recently sat in the same room as our colleagues in the Energy and Technology Committee and spoke about public discourse and the need for civility around this rate case. In truth, it’s been lacking. How can we improve the ratemaking process to benefit everyone affected?

Across the country, many legislatures are looking to implement performance-based ratemaking to deliver the kind of accountability possible through Connecticut’s PURA because of competent personnel who are willing to scrutinize it.

The Connecticut Legislature already passed the Take Back Our Grid Act, which would penalize power companies monetarily if they take too long to get the power back on. This year, in SB 7, now enacted into law, Connecticut led in accountability by limiting the ability of utility companies to recoup from ratepayers the exorbitant amount of money spent on rate cases, dues, and lobbying expenses. Utility companies are dreading these new requirements and worked against the legislation.

Throughout the recent conversation, pundits have tried to impugn the credibility or competence of PURA leadership, with surrogates suggesting, without citation, that PURA is the worst-ranked regulatory authority in the nation. But – worse for whom? Certainly not the ratepayers – that’s you, the residents of CT, who bear nearly the highest energy costs in the United States and welcome more scrutiny prior to any decision on your electric rates.

In a report published in July in an energy research paper, the author notes that regulatory bodies in the model of CT’s PURA offer hope in a nation whose equivalent boards are susceptible to utility capture (or to utility campaign donations if the state has an elected regulatory body). Our PURA is uniquely chaired by Marissa Gillett, a leader who is both an engineer and an attorney and previously worked as a regulator in Maryland.

As pundits, surrogates, and talking heads try to suggest that what is happening under PURA in current pending dockets will have negative effects, we are reading something different between those lines. They are scared. Scared of lost profits. Scared of accountability. And scared of what this ruling’s success will mean not if, but when, it is replicated nationally. We hope the rate decision will bring confidence to ratepayers and the people of Connecticut. A strong PURA that is willing to dig deeply into the facts is exactly what you’re asking for each time you’re jarred by an electric bill, disgusted with poor storm response, or outraged by a CEO’s salary.

State Reps. Jaime Foster (D-Ellington, East Windsor, and Vernon, who serves as Vice-Chair of the Energy and Technology Committee), Eleni Kavros DeGraw (D-Avon and Canton), Mary Mushinsky (D-Wallingford), and Maria Horn (D-Canaan, Cornwall, Goshen, Kent, Norfolk, North Canaan, Salisbury, Sharon, and Washington) are members of the CT General Assembly.