Incentives to switch to natural gas ending
State utility regulators are ending a nine-year program that incentivized Connecticut homeowners to switch to natural gas.
Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Wednesday issued its 28-page ruling, giving the state’s three natural gas utilities 90 days to end the conversion incentives.
In its written ruling, PURA’s commissioners concluded the incentive program “no longer furthers the state’s overall climate and energy goals .... (and) is no longer in the best interest of ratepayers.”
When it was approved in 2013, the program was supposed to extend until the end of 2023.
At the time, state environmental officials and the natural gas companies argued the cheaper natural gas prices would benefit consumers and warranted the conversion incentives and extending natural gas distribution networks into areas that were previously not served.
But natural gas prices have since increased and the program struggled to find consumers willing to convert.
“Although the growth rate of new customers has declined for all three ... the average cost to connect new services has increased significantly,” since the start of the program, PURA’s ruling said.
Mitch Gross, a spokesperson for Eversource Energy, said company officials were reviewing PURA’s ruling. Gross said 38,189 customers in the company’s natural gas service territory have switched since 2013.
“We recognize things have evolved since the System Expansion Plan was created and are looking at ways to ensure a seamless and equitable transition for our customers,” he said. “We look forward to working with our regulators and other partners to help Connecticut reach our shared goals for a cleaner energy future.”
Eversource provides natural gas to 249,000 customers in 74 communities.
Officials with Orange-based Avangrid, which operates Southern Connecticut Gas and Connecticut Natural Gas, could not immediately be reached for comment on PURA’s ruling or to provide data on how many customers they have added since the program started.
Representatives of a state home heating oil dealer trade group and a environmental policy organization praised PURA’s ruling.
Chris Herb, president of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association, blamed officials with the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection for backing the plan during the administration of then-Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
“Government can’t legislate energy: Some of the same people who supported it then are still there today,” Herb said. “DEEP was wrong on the natural gas conversion plan and (Wednesday’s) decision confirms it. Unfortunately, thousands of consumers were fleeced by the state’s promise of a ‘clean, cheaper, and more reliable’ energy source, only to find out nearly a decade later that natural gas was dirty, more expensive, and unreliable.”
Shannon Laun, a staff attorney with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation, said PURA’s ruling “is a huge step toward getting polluting, dirty fossil fuels out of our homes.”
“Unfortunately, PURA is giving gas companies a grace period to sign up more customers for the incentive program,” Laun said. “The more new customers we’re allowing to be put natural gas, the more problems we’re going to have down the line.”