Regulators slash Eversource storm cost recovery request by $500M

Regulators have reduced the amount of money Eversource can recover from storm costs.

Eversource initially sought to recover nearly $1.4 billion in storm recovery costs between 2018 and 2023.

But the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) said Eversource failed to make the case for that amount of money, and in some cases, found that the company was just not acting in the interest of ratepayers. PURA wound up removing $500 million from the company’s request.

Claire Coleman with Consumer Council said her team’s investigation revealed hundreds of millions in imprudent company spending, ranging from “excessive and unjustified” standby charges to unsupported invoices, grossly exaggerated travel times, and even private jet travel when relying on out-of-state vendors.

Eversource was seeking permission to securitize, or borrow, the money to replenish what it spent and spread the costs out over time to reduce the impact on customers.

But in its ruling, PURA said Eversource at times did not do enough to keep its costs down and at times appeared to overstate how much it spent.

This decision comes as customers and lawmakers are wondering how PURA would handle a different Eversource case: the company’s request for a double-digit rate hike.

Attorney General William Tong said in a statement that the decision was “an important victory for Connecticut ratepayers.”

“PURA has rejected Eversource’s attempt to make Connecticut families pay millions of dollars in interest payments on unvetted and unapproved costs. We will continue to scrutinize every dollar Eversource requests from ratepayers, including in its upcoming rate case, to ensure ratepayers do not have to pay a penny more than they absolutely have to,” said Tong.

Eversource said in a statement about the decision:

We appreciate the thoughtful and deliberate process PURA implemented to reach this decision. Customers demand a fast and effective storm response when our state is impacted by extreme weather and have a low tolerance for outages. Meeting those customer expectations requires appropriate storm preparation and response, which comes at a substantial cost. PURA’s final decision is an important step toward recovering the significant and prudently incurred costs associated with responding to and restoring power following several destructive storms from 2018 – 2023. Storm response is a process of continual improvement, and we look forward to applying what we’ve learned from this outcome to improve our process going forward. With affordability a main focal point here in Connecticut and across the nation, the authorization to securitize these catastrophic storm costs will allow us to remove those hundreds of millions of dollars from our recently filed rate review, resulting in a lower bill impact for customers. We will now focus on moving forward with securitization of these storm costs, which is a complex and lengthy process but one that will lead to significant savings for customers.

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