Eversource and UI refer to state policies’ costs, as residents face steep utility bills

It’s hard to believe CT is even a little bit economically friendly—especially when its utility bills are among the highest in the nation. In 2024, Connecticut has an average electricity bill of $201, while the US average is $138.

Excerpts from Chris Powell’s latest column:

“The forthcoming rate increases, expected to be around 19%, are reported to be entirely the result of two state government mandates. 

The first mandate requires the utilities to purchase the production of the Millstone nuclear power plant in Waterford, electricity that sometimes is cheaper than other sources and sometimes isn’t. State government has concluded that keeping Millstone operating is vital to Connecticut’s energy security.

The second mandate requires the utilities to keep providing electricity to customers who consider themselves too poor to pay for it. Whereupon that cost is transferred to customers who don’t consider themselves too poor to pay and whose rates go up.”

………

“The state government policies affecting electric rates are not necessarily wrong. But recovering their costs by hiding them in electricity bills, as Connecticut does, is dishonest. It deliberately misleads the public into thinking that the utilities are responsible for high rates when they are the work of government.

NBC Connecticut reported, that “Eversource says a factor for the hike request are unpaid electricity bills stretching back during covid. “I don’t mind paying a little more for service. I don’t want to pay for other people being delinquent or non-paying to cover them,” Allen Levin of East Hartford said.”