NEW BRITAIN – Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman has applauded the state Supreme Court’s decision that upholds a historic rate reduction for Aquarion Water Co. customers.
Aquarion sought to overturn the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority’s (PURA) 2022 rate case that ordered a more than $40 million reduction to the company’s rate request. The decision in Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut v. Public Utilities Regulatory Authority results in significant savings for the water utility’s customers upon implementation.
“Today’s (July 9) ruling by the state’s highest court adopts several arguments made by my office throughout the appeals process,” Coleman said in a press release. “Utilities must meet their burden of proof to show customers are benefiting from the investments that customers pay for on their bills, and in this case Aquarion came up short.”
Aquarion’s original rate increase request of $247.43 million over three years with a return on equity (ROE) of 10.35% would have resulted in an increase of roughly 9% or $61 per year to the average residential water customer. PURA’s decision allowed the company only $195.5 million with an ROE of 8.7% – resulting in roughly $67 a year below the company’s request.
To protect this pro-consumer decision challenged by the company in April 2023, the Office of Consumer Counsel intervened in the company’s appeal before the Connecticut Superior Court. On March 26, 2024, the court largely upheld PURA’s original decision citing key arguments OCC raised, including that the regulator can properly consider all relevant statutory standards when evaluating requests for cost recovery.
In the July 9 decision, the Supreme Court affirmed nearly every aspect of PURA’s original decision. The court affirmed that PURA’s reduction to the company’s requested profits would not unconstitutionally diminish the company’s financial integrity or deprive it of its ability to attract capital. The decision also remanded a minor technical issue back to PURA for reconsideration – a total of $1.5 million of Aquarion’s nearly $50 million request.
The decision becomes effective July 15 and will lift the court-ordered stay on these rates for Aquarion customers, who can expect to see bill savings based on original estimates.
