The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has given Eversource and United Illuminating 20 days to appeal paying millions of dollars in civil penalties for failure to meet their obligations to ratepayers in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Isaias.
PURA has proposed a $30,025,022 penalty for Eversource and a $2,141,470 penalty against UI.
The move follows by only a few days PURA”™s report stating that the utilities failed to meet “certain acceptable performance standards in preparing for, and responding to, the storm,” which left hundreds of thousands without power last August.
As part of that report, PURA ordered a reduction in the profits of both Eversource and UI. Eversource, headquartered in Boston, is set to receive a downward adjustment of 0.9% while UI, based in New Haven, will receive a reduction of 0.15%. The move is intended to incentivize the companies to better prepare for future storms, PURA said.
In the latest action, PURA directs the utilities to pay their penalties in the form of credits to ratepayers, as well as to pay fines for accident-reporting violations to Connecticut”™s general fund.
Unless and until Eversource and UI appeal PURA”™s actions, they will pay approximately $55 million and $3.4 million in total penalties, respectively.
Both utilities said they were reviewing PURA’s actions.
Attorney General William Tong issued a statement following the PURA announcement saying: “Eversource failed its customers and put Connecticut families at risk after Tropical Storm Isaias. I fought for swift, severe penalties from the beginning, and this $30 million penalty is appropriate. Eversource must pay for their failures.
“This penalty is a strong first step to hold Eversource accountable for their disastrous performance, but this matter is far from over,” Tong said. “We will continue to fight before PURA to ensure that Eversource cannot put the full cost of their failures back on ratepayers.”
