Information on Electric Rates

Many of you have contacted me about the stark increase in your electric bills. I was just as shocked and outraged when I received my bill this month. I want to provide you with information about why electric costs have gotten so high, what we are doing about it, and options you have to help lower your monthly bill.

Background on Rates…

High rates are due to factors like our location and lack of natural resources, infrastructure upgrades, Connecticut’s high business costs, legislative policies, and decisions by state utility regulators.

This includes roughly a four year time span of moratoriums on service shutoffs (citing COVID-19), which socialized the cost of unpaid bills to all ratepayers. It’s why Republicans insisted upon a provision that requires your electric bill to indicate the amount of your monthly cost that is attributable to these “public benefits” decisions.

The effect on ratepayers was among the reasons why I opposed the electric vehicle mandate sought by DEEP and Democrats, and why I opposed legislation requiring installation of electric heat pumps in thousands of homes. Both would have added significant load to our grid, require massive infrastructure upgrades, and ultimately impact the “public benefits” tally on bills and create homeowner system upgrade costs. Thankfully, those concepts stalled–for now. 

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) and utility companies are in open conflict over rates, programs, infrastructure, and policy proposals. Credit rating agency Moody’s has branded our state’s regulatory environment “inconsistent and unpredictable”. The Governor has largely stayed out of the fray and hasn’t fully staffed PURA, leaving two vacancies on the panel.

Our system is broken! Connecticut needs a comprehensive and bipartisan energy strategy, now more than ever.

Ideas on Energy Strategy…

I blew the whistle on this crisis earlier this year as Republicans offered proposals to deliver short and long-term relief, including redefining Class I renewable energy sources to include all forms of hydropower and all nuclear power, and studying ways to get more natural gas into New England to reduce our reliance on more expensive fuel-mix used to generate electricity. Additional ideas include:

• Provide autonomy for PURA. PURA is a division within the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). I fear that environmental (and ideological) goals of Governor Lamont’s DEEP, such banning the sales of new gas-powered vehicles, aren’t aligned with the interests of ratepayers. PURA should be removed from DEEP to provide it the greatest autonomy possible.
• Unbundling the System Benefits Charge. Your bill includes charges that pay for hardship protection measures, low-income conservation programs as well as other public policies. We should consider funding these programs as part of the state budget appropriations process rather than including them on ratepayer bills.
• Set reasonable caps on future power purchase agreements (PPAs). To stimulate growth of renewable energy projects, the state has required utility companies to purchase clean electricity (such as wind and solar) at rates that are sometimes substantially higher than others available on the market. Republicans proposed to improve this situation by capping future PPAs so that no contract can be for more than significantly over the wholesale electric market price.

Take Action…

I want you to know that I’ll continue to push for strategies to stabilize, and ultimately lower, electric rates for homes and businesses. Existing state law allows you to pick a third-party supplier. For now, if you’re using a third-party supplier for your electricity, you should compare whether your per kilowatt hour rate is more than the current standard offer rate from your utility company.

###