Joint Letter to Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Regarding Docket 17-01-12
Public Comment in Support of Generic Fixed Charge Formula
Seventeen organizations signed a letter to encourage the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to develop a generic formula for the residential fixed charge that remains consistent with the outcome of the recent United Illuminating electric rate case---in which the residential fixed charge was cut by 45%---and that also does not deviate from the limited scope of eligible costs defined in Connecticut’s 2015 residential fixed charge statute. The letter outlines how lowering fixed charges will benefit a majority of residential customers, particularly low-income and low-usage customers.
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Joint Statement on Eversource Rate Case in Massachusetts
In January 2017, Eversource filed its first complete rate case in many years. After a lengthy proceeding, the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) approved four major proposals from Eversource that are bad for ratepayers and move us away from a future with consumer control and widespread local clean energy. The endorsers of this letter support efforts to undo these counterproductive decisions in 2018 and urge the Massachusetts Legislature to ensure that similar steps are not taken in the future.
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Electric Vehicles and State Funds
Policymakers in Massachusetts have directed a study of transportation funding from electric vehicles and whether additional contributions are necessary to offset a loss of revenue from the gasoline tax. Acadia Center’s analysis demonstrates that additional fees are not necessary or fair in the short run, but in the longer term, an energy-equivalent surcharge per kWh of electricity consumed would be a fair way to ensure equitable contributions from all alternative fuels.
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Grid Modernization and Utility Reform in MA Series
Massachusetts has fallen behind its neighbors in exploring and enacting policies that will help the Commonwealth keep pace with clean energy technologies that offer enormous promise to make the electricity grid more responsive to consumers, improve economic competitiveness, and produce substantial reductions in climate pollution. Acadia Center comments on this trend in a three-part opinion series for CommonWealth Magazine. Part One of the series reviews the recent history of grid modernization and utility reform in Massachusetts, its uncertain future, and the need for legislative reforms and oversight. Part Two describes how the Department of Public Utilities (DPU) decision on revenue, return on equity, and utility business model reform fails to benefit consumers and ultimately approves approximately $460 million in additional ratepayer costs. Part Three discusses the DPU decision issued on January 5, 2018, covering rate design.
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CT Businesses Have a Message to Legislators: Restore the Energy Efficiency Fund
Connecticut’s high-quality energy efficiency programs help many businesses save money, improve their bottom line, create new jobs that pay well, and compete locally and nationally.
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Energy Efficiency Is Working in New England
Over the past few years, electric consumption has been declining in New England even as the population and economy have grown. This is due in
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Regulator cuts Eversource rate request by more than half to $124.7M
PURA approved a fixed customer charge of $9.50, down from $19.25, which adheres to a law passed by state lawmakers in 2015. High fixed charges
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