Connecticut

Credit rating agency knocks down another Eversource subsidiary's rating

Moody’s Ratings has handed down a total of six ratings downgrades to Connecticut's largest electric utility and its subsidiaries since October 2023.

NBCConnecticut.com

Moody’s Ratings had more bad news for Eversource Energy this month, handing down yet another downgrade to one of its subsidiaries amid a tumultuous year for Connecticut’s largest electric utility.

The credit rating agency announced last week that it had downgraded Connecticut Light & Power Co.’s rating outlook from stable to negative, pointing both to the company’s “weak financial profile” and to Connecticut’s “inconsistent and unpredictable regulatory environment.”

But the hit on CL&P’s outlook is only the latest in a series of negative rating changes the credit agency has handed down to parent Eversource. 

Since October 2023, Moody’s has downgraded Eversource and its subsidiaries a total of six times, and as of June 18, Eversource and two of its six subsidiaries have negative credit rating outlooks.

Just last month, Moody’s dropped Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut’s low-risk A3 credit rating to a higher-risk Baa1 rating. 

As with CL&P, the ratings agency cited the water company’s “weakening financial profile” as its rationale for the downgrade. Jeff Cassella, vice president and senior credit officer at Moody’s, again referenced a regulatory environment that “has become more challenging and less credit supportive for the state's regulated utilities.”

However, AWC-CT — which Eversource is expected to put up for sale as early as July — also saw Moody’s upgrade its rating outlook from negative to stable last month, with the agency noting it expects that “the Connecticut regulatory environment's credit supportiveness will not deteriorate further.”

This move came only a few months after Moody’s downgraded the rating outlooks of both Eversource and NSTAR Electric, and less than a year after it knocked their credit ratings down.

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