The percentage doubled in the past year of Connecticut homeowners who buy their electricity from a competitor of Connecticut Light & Power or United Illuminating Co., even as the Malloy administration considers whether to push for an overhaul of the state”™s energy system.
In Connecticut, 36 percent of residences were billed by competitive electricity providers in 2010, with nearly 20 companies approved to offer service in Fairfield County, including the Stamford-based giant MXenergy Inc. and a half-dozen others based locally.
The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) estimates that customers saved $200 million in the aggregate last year by buying electricity from Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and United Illuminating competitors.
DPUC approved standard service electric rates that will result in a 7.8 percent average reduction for customers of CL&P, and a 1.5 percent cut for those served by United Illuminating.
DPUC said the average CL&P residential customer will save about $10.50 a month as a result of the cut, with United Illuminating customers slated to save $2.50 on average. A typical CL&P residential customer paid approximately $134 monthly last year, while UI customers paid more than $167 monthly.
Separately, however, Connecticut enacted a law ”“ effective January through the end of June ”“ that requires electric companies to assess their customers an additional charge based on kilowatt hours consumed, in order to help close the state”™s budget gap.
As of last year, Connecticut”™s electric rates remain among the highest in the country, and are frequently cited by businesses as a deterrent to establishing operations here, particularly the case with manufacturers. In 2009, Connecticut”™s rates were second only to Hawaii, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Connecticut”™s gap with other states increased between 2004 and 2009, according to Kevin McCarthy, an analyst in the Connecticut General Assembly”™s Office of Legislative Research; in 2004 Connecticut”™s average rate was 35 percent above the national average; by February 2010, the gap was up to 84 percent.
Last year, former Gov. M. Jodi Rell vetoed a massive energy overhaul bill rushed through the legislature in the final hours of the session, with Rell objecting both to the manner in which the bill was passed and to what she said were added costs for businesses and consumers that would be the result.
A number of stakeholders have proposed ways to reduce power rates while the state attorney general, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, pushed for a state power authority that could procure power for smaller customers, and provide incentives for the construction of new power plants. The Connecticut Business & Industry Association has suggested the state review its current schedule for increasing the amount of power generated by renewable sources; and reexamine the feasibility of a new nuclear power plant in Connecticut. CL&P and United Illuminating want greater leeway to build generation facilities, which they argue would help keep rates in check.
CL&P is a subsidiary of Hartford-based Northeast Utilities, which is pursuing a merger with Boston-based NStar. According to a Boston Herald report in late December, an official in the administration of Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick told utility officials that the state would hold up the deal if the companies do not agree to buy electricity from a proposed wind farm off Nantucket, and otherwise demonstrate their commitment to clean energy. Northeast Utilities and NStar last year unveiled plans to erect power lines north from New Hampshire to tap into dam-generated electricity from Hydro Quebec.
