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The company filed a request for a $784 million rate adjustment with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) on Thursday, Feb. 15, according to a statement from Eversource.
The proposed rate hike, which would go into effect on Wednesday, May 1, would increase monthly bills for residential customers by $38, a 19 percent increase, according to a report by Connecticut Public.
According to Eversource, the proposed rate hike is primarily caused by $605 million in unrecovered costs caused by the state forcing the company to purchase energy from third-party owners of electric generating facilities such as Millstone, the state's last nuclear power plant.
Additionally, the rate hike is also needed because of $160 million in unrecovered costs caused by state initiatives benefitting low-income and medical hardship customers, the company said.
Eversource also blamed a "high number of unpaid customer balances going back multiple years during the COVID-19 pandemic" for the increase.
"Overdue customer balances are paid for by all customers," the company said in a statement.
In addition to filing the rate increase request with PURA, the company also asked state agencies and executive offices to collaborate on ideas to provide rate stability for customers.
"Our customers want predictability, and not a constantly and significantly changing electric bill each year," said Steve Sullivan, the company's President of Electric Operations in Connecticut.
Sullivan continued, "We’re coming forward with a menu of solutions to achieve the goals of providing our customers with stability for several years, modifying policies to help prevent this kind of rate shock from happening in the future, and ensuring we have the resources needed to manage the electrical system and provide high-quality customer service.”
Some of the company's proposed ideas include:
- Phasing in proposed rate increases over a period of time later in the year where customers can see the benefit of lower supply costs, minimizing the impact of rate increases;
- Changing rate-making methodology to allow for the forecasting of costs and factoring them into rates to avoid large increases in the future;
- Working on solutions with lawmakers to mitigate the impact of future unpaid balances on customers.
Gov. Ned Lamont's spokeswoman, Julia Bergman, commented on these ideas, Connecticut Public reported: "We need to review the filing. We agree that we ought to work together to lower electric costs...We’ll continue to collaborate with all the parties to do that.”
Click here to read the full report from Connecticut Public.
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