Healey wants DPU to pull plug on Eversource rate hike plan
Attorney General Maura Healey is blasting a plan by Eversource Energy to hike electric rates for its 1.4 million customers is Massachusetts, saying the move puts shareholder profits over customers.
“As a regulated public utility, Eversource is required to justify why the state should permit it to raise electric rates on residents and business customers,” Healey said in a statement. “Our initial evaluation shows that Eversource should be returning profits to customers as savings, not raising rates. We urge the DPU to reject Eversource’s request for a rate hike.”
Healey said the rate hike — which must be approved by the Department of Public Utilities — would raise profits to 10.5 percent on the backs of customers who would have to pay another $96 million. Last month, Healey railed against high utility profit rates, asking the DPU to investigate why utilities were allowed to make a higher profit in Massachusetts than in neighboring states.
The increase works out to 7 percent, or an average of $8.45 a month, for NStar customers in Eastern Massachusetts who use 550 kilowatt hours a month, while a typical Western Massachusetts Electric customer will see an increase of 10 percent, or $11.64, the company said.
The rate increase would help “alleviate a revenue deficiency” of $96 million across the state, the company stated.
Eversource says the funds will help the company ”deliver the benefits of a modernized grid to customers” and implement a “smarter, more technologically-advanced energy grid, better able to meet increasing customer expectations and align with clean energy policy goals.”
This would be the company’s first rate change since it froze rates after its 2012 merger with Northeast Utilities.