Attorney General William Tong is pushing back at the rate hike request submitted by United Illuminating to the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
The utility is seeking to raise rates by as much as 8% over three years, beginning in September 2023. United Illuminating said this will be the first time since 2019 that customers will pay for an increase in distribution rates, but Tong argued this was the wrong time and wrong approach.
“Connecticut families pay far too much for their energy, and a rate increase at this time will only make that worse,” Tong said in a statement. “My office will intervene on behalf of consumers, and we intend to aggressively scrutinize every charge and assumption in search of savings.”
A United Illuminating spokesperson contacted the Business Journal to explain the reasons behind the request.
“UI”™s last distribution rate case was in 2016 and UI”™s customers”™ distribution rates have not increased since January 1, 2019, and since this time inflation rates – the cost of doing business – has increased over 7%,” said the utility’s spokesperson. “Additionally, UI has and continues to make significant investments necessary to continue to provide safe and reliable service to its customers all while keeping rates stable.
“UI”™s anticipated rate application will enable UI to build a stronger, smarter and more resilient grid, focused on maintaining reliability and strengthening the resiliency of the system to meet customer needs and evolving expectations. Our goal in this rate case is to spread the proposed total rate increase over three years at an average total bill increase of approximately 5% per year across all rate classes, which represents an increase that is less than the current rate of inflation.”
