Here's Why Your Electricity Bill Skyrocketed This Summer In CT

CONNECTICUT — Plenty of Connecticut residents have noticed skyrocketing utility bills in July, and it's not just because of the seemingly never-ending heatwave.

New utility rates went into effect on July 1 and since then some customers bills have increased by hundreds of dollars.

In a lengthy news release, Eversource officials explained what is behind the increase:

Here are the highlights from Eversource:

"Certain costs of service, including state-mandated energy programs, policies and initiatives, are adjusted at least once a year based on our costs for these services. These costs are recovered through a charge on your bill," the utility said.

"Starting July 1, all residential electric customers saw the Public Benefits portion of their bill increase about $48 per month – based on a 700 kWh bill – over 10 months. This component is based on usage. Connecticut customers use, on average, 35% more electricity during the summer months to stay cool, and the state has experienced several heatwaves which can lead to greater electric usage," Eversource officials said in a statement.

"At the same time, the Standard Service energy supply rate decreased from 14.71 cents per kWh to 8.99 cents per kWh. With these combined adjustments, the majority of residential customers using an average of 700 kWh per month saw a net increase on their bill of approximately $8," company officials said.

"The decrease in the Standard Service rate offsets a large portion of the increase to the Public Benefits portion of the bill for those customers on Standard Service. All customers are encouraged to check supply rates and choose the lowest rate to help offset this increase."

"This rate adjustment was reviewed and approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) and is an annual adjustment that will be collected through April 30, 2025. The Standard Service energy supply rate is in effect from July 1 through December 31, 2024.

Where You See This Reflected on Your Bill

This rate increase is almost entirely within the Public Benefits portion of your bill and is driven by state-mandated and approved energy programs, policies and initiatives, which we do not control or make a profit from, company officials said.

What's driving the increase

"While this rate adjustment consists mostly of pass-through costs required by state policies that are reasonably designed to benefit customers, the size of this increase was driven by PURA’s previous decisions to not collect costs at the time they were incurred and instead push costs off to the future.

"We have repeatedly expressed our concerns to regulators that continuously pushing off necessary rate adjustments would eventually lead to rate shock for customers, and unfortunately our concerns have now become a reality. We continue to propose policy paths to keep rates stable and predictable."

Does this increase have to do with Eversource’s reported losses from its offshore wind business?

"No, our reported losses on offshore wind investments are entirely unrelated to this increase and have zero impact on Connecticut customer bills. The costs relating to the state’s public policies like power purchase agreements, customer assistance programs and other costs are specific to Connecticut and are covered by Connecticut customers under state law," utility officials said.

How We Move Forward

"We continue to pursue solutions that will help prevent this kind of rate swing from happening in the future and create bill stability and predictability for customers.

We propose:

• Aligning the part of the rate that deals with the state-mandated power contracts with the Standard Service rate changes on January 1 and July 1.
• That interim rate changes be allowed within a 6-month period if we project a significant over or under recovery of costs. This would mitigate large amounts from building and reduce rate shock caused by significant swings in the underlying market prices.
• Returning to using forecasted costs because as we’ve seen, last year’s costs are not good indicators of the current year’s expenses. We are ready to provide you with rate stability."