BERLIN, Conn. — Officials are being held accountable for the sizable increase to your electric bill. After talking with politicians, now, FOX61 is speaking with the utility companies.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the utility companies are blaming the politicians and regulators.
RELATED: PURA approves rate adjustment request from Eversource, UI to offset EV Program expenses
Both Eversource and United Illuminating recently redesigned their customer bills. Prior to the redesign, they used to only display supply and delivery charges.
Now, there are four categories displayed: supply, delivery, transmission and public benefits. These are not new charges. They are simply easier to see.
However, the redesign has coincided with a spike in customer bills due to a July increase in the public benefits portion of the charges. Since public benefits are tied to usage, and it’s been a record hot July, those developments contributed further to the spike.
The situation has customers angry. A Change.org petition is calling for the state to cancel the public benefits charge. It has more than 39,000 signatures, including videos posted from people.
“This bill, that’s gonna break my bank,” said one person.
“I’m mad as hell,” remarked another.
“We certainly understand the frustration that customers are feeling,” said Jaimee Ratliff of Eversource.
“There’s a lot of confusion,” added Ted Novicki of Avangrid, the parent company of United Illuminating.
It’s the first time since the increase that FOX61 is hearing directly from Eversource and United Illuminating. They say it’s the fault of politicians and regulators.
“More than a year ago we let regulators know that the rates that they had set did not reflect the actual costs of those programs,” explained Ratliff.
“This is the result of laws and policy that our legislators have made,” added Novicki.
Eversource and UI claim that rather than paying the cost of programs that the state mandated in full on time, they kicked the can down the road. Now, the bill is due — during a record hot month — where usage is high.
“It is an increase that no other state in this region is seeing,” said Ratliff.
So, what is the public benefits charge? It’s a series of policy decisions spread across customer bills that includes costs for things like nuclear power purchase agreements, operating the electric grid, renewable energy programs, efficiency programs and yes… a collection of $180 million in unpaid bills made worse by a four-year ban on customer shutoffs during COVID.
“Make no mistake about it. This is the largest increase ever within the public benefits portion of the bill,” noted Ratliff.
For July, that benefits charge increased by $866 million.
“None of that money, while collected by us as well as Eversource, none of it stays with us,” explained Novicki, noting that it's what is called a "pass thru charge," and the utilities don’t profit from it.
Novick went on to say, “This has exposed the fact that, wow, 25% of my bill is going to public policies. What are those policies? Who passed them and how am I benefiting?”
Bills should start to level out when the public benefits increase is paid for in about 10 months, but in the meantime, people are threatening to boycott their bills and protest their politicians.
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Matt Caron is a reporter at FOX61 News. He can be reached at mcaron@fox61.com. Follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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