CT residents voicing frustration over surge in public benefits utility costs

“Shocked. It’s more than double what we usual pay,” said Newington’s Gina Frazao.

Eversource customers in Connecticut saw a historic price increase in portions of their utility bill during the month of July. 

“It’s been really crazy because that was like a serious hike,” said Manchester’s Tiffany Wright.

“I’m on a fixed income,” said New Britain’s Carlos Stro. “I can’t spend more than a $100 more, I’m barely getting the groceries and stuff.”

That frustration has been shared by over 10,000 people so far, signing an online petition demanding state leaders cease the public benefit charge of the utility bill.

“The public benefits portion of the bill is for state mandated and approved programs and policies that we do not control or profit from,” said Jamie Ratliff, spokesperson for Eversource.

Eversource said that a large portion of the added cost has to do with power purchase agreements including the state made with Millstone nuclear power plant in 2017.

“I think it was a good move. It saved us a lot of money a couple years ago, it’s costing us money today because natural gas is very cheap and this is a differential we’re paying,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.

New Britain Mayor Erin Stewart, who took to social media to vocalize her displeasure with the current situation, disagreed with that rationale.

“That plan from years ago has been incrementally increasing our utility bills, we know that, but it’s a complete deflection of what actually happened this past session,” Mayor Stewart said.

Instead, Stewart pointed to the state’s four-year long moratorium, which allowed people to maintain power without having to pay.

“The last of the real hardship cases we did not end that until late last year, middle of last year,” Lamont said. “You could make a case we should’ve done that sooner.”

“Now we’re paying for all the other people’s things and all the other stuff?” Stro said.

Eversource also said it warned the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority that such a price shock was on the horizon.

“We had warned regulators more than a year ago that rates did not reflect the actual costs of these state mandated programs. They continued to keep rates artificially low, pushing those costs forward which is now why we’re seeing this large wall of costs,” Ratlif said.

Now, it’s the Connecticut customers who are forced to pay the price.

“Something’s gotta be done. It’s getting way too expensive,” Frazao said.

These rate hikes in the public benefits portion of the bill started in July and are expected to remain for a 10-month period. Eversource says specific increases are still tied to usage.