War of Words Heats Up Over Once-in-a-Century Energy Regulations

Utilities and regulators in Connecticut are wrestling over perhaps the biggest change in how electric rates are set in more than a century.

The debate pits United Illuminating and Eversource, the state’s largest utilities, against the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, which is overseeing the changeover from a traditional cost of service model to performance-based regulation, or PBR.

Oliver Tully, director of utility innovation and accountability at the Acadia Center, a clean energy advocacy group, claimed in an interview with CT Examiner that the evidence from other states does not support the idea that reducing the rate of return would impede companies from raising capital to invest in the grid.

“The interest paid may be higher and the share price may go down in situations like that, but access to capital has not been an issue,” Tully said. “A lower share price has not automatically increased costs for clients.”

Tully mentioned the example of Hawaii, where PBR framework adoption led to regulatory certainty and Fitch upgrading the state’s credit rating.

To read the full article from CT Examiner, click here.