NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Some of the state's electrical customers will be seeing a credit on their bills in the coming months after the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) recovered more than $9.4 million for ratepayers following an investigation that found dozens of electric suppliers failed to abide by existing customer protection regulations.
PURA received complaints that several suppliers had not provided current Next Cycle Rate information to the electric distribution companies. That resulted in the overbilling of certain customers at rates higher than the last amount displayed on the customer’s monthly electric bill as their Next Cycle Rate.
In a draft interim decision issued Wednesday, PURA said those customers will see bill credits of more than $9.4 million at a time. A release from PURA said the credits come at a time, "when many Connecticut households continue to struggle with the affordability of essential services, like electricity."
"As part of the proceeding, PURA provided amnesty from civil penalties to any supplier who voluntarily elected to self-report Next Cycle Rate violations that occurred up to January 28, 2019, so long as the supplier provided appropriate refunds to all affected customers," the release went on to say.
Initially, 25 suppliers elected to participate in the amnesty program by the deadline of February 20, 2019, and 22 submitted amnesty plans regarding violations.
The total at that time amounted to $4 million in credits to customers, however, PURA audited the data and worked with suppliers to increase the customer bill credits to $9,412,918.
"The Authority has now approved the 22 final amnesty plans spanning from January 2016 to January 2019. Bill credits for affected customers have been in the process of being applied to monthly electric bills since mid-2020, and will continue through the rest of this calendar year." said officials
Suppliers that did not participate in this review may be subject to an investigation and possible fines.
PURA urges all customers to review the supply summary on the first page of their electric bill each month. Customers can also find information about supplier rates on Connecticut’s official rate board.
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