NEW BRITAIN – State Attorney General William Tong is prepared to see to it that the nearly 700,000 customers of Eversource’s Aquarion Water Co. “aren’t paying a penny more than they need to” when it comes to paying for water.
That is Tong’s response to Eversource’s filing of a letter of intent Monday to ask PURA (Public Utilities Regulatory Authority) raise rates 42% beginning in November 2026 to raise $88 million. The utility said it is left with no other option than to file for the rate increase when PURA Eversource’s $2.4 billion sale of Aquarion last month.
“We’re going to do what we always do – comb through every line and every page of their filings to ensure Connecticut families aren’t paying a penny more than they need to,” Tong said.
In a rare bipartisan effort, state Senate Republican leadership joined with Tong to assail Eversource’s letter of intent to file for the rate increase. They said in a joint statement that they will continue to do all they can to protect overburdened Connecticut residents from “unaffordable, sky-high rate hikes.”
The statement was attributed to Sens. Stephen Harding, Sen. Ryan Fazio, Sen. Heather Somers, Sen. Tony Hwang, Sen. Jason Perillo and Sen. Eric Berthel
“Last month, state regulators voted down an atrocious, non-transparent backroom deal which would have caused a tsunami of unending water rate spikes in cities and towns across Connecticut,” they said.
“And Senate Republicans stood with a bipartisan group of mayors and community advocates to note how that shameful deal stunk from day one and should have never been signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.”
The path to Eversource’s call for a rate increase dates back to 2022 when PURA rejected Aquarion’s filing to increase rates by $35.3 million, but instead reduced rates by $4 million. It continued this year when Eversource decided to sell Aquarion to a newly created authority that would have increased water rates by $18 million and would not be subject to PURA oversight. That attempt failed last month when PURA rejected Aquarion Water Authority’s change in control application.
And more recently Eversource filed an appeal of PURA’s rejection of the change in control application.
In its letter, Eversource explained that the last time Aquarion’s base rate increased was 12 years ago and that on a stand-alone basis it is need of a $65 million rate increase to “address an operating revenue deficiency that has existed prior to 2022. The utility also argues that it needs the revenue to modernize aging infrastructure to meet new environmental regulatory standards.
