The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
UI, Eversource threatened with fines
Connecticut utility regulators are threatening to fine Eversource Energy and the United Illuminating Co. an unspecified amount of money if the two electric distribution companies do not make significant progress in developing pricing and billing mechanisms necessary for the implementation of shared renewable energy programs.
In a Feb. 18 letter to executives at both utility companies obtained by Hearst Connecticut Media, Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Executive Secretary Jeff Gaudiosi ordered officials with UI and Eversource to attend a meeting Friday at the agency’s headquarters in New Britain to discuss why the process of developing the
pricing and billing mechanisms for shared renewable energy programs is taking so long.
Gaudiosi also gave the two companies until March 17 to resubmit and improve the quality of filings detailing how the process would work.
If UI and Eversource officials fail to meet that March 17 deadline, Gaudiosi said PURA will begin imposing the daily fines. The letter does not specify how large the fines would be, and PURA officials declined comment on the matter.
PURA issued its ruling on the requirements for a shared renewable energy program on Dec. 18 last year and the companies were supposed to have submitted all the necessary paperwork within 30 days of that ruling. But Gaudiosi wrote in part that “neither of the Companies’ (filings) ... were up to the quality standards we would expect.”
“The Authority reiterates that the time for seeking further changes to items addressed in the decision has passed,” he wrote. “The Authority is attempting to give the Companies as much guidance as possible, but progress cannot be made if the Authority’s orders are not followed.”
Ed Crowder, a UI spokesman, said company officials have been “working diligently to implement this program, and has missed no statutory deadline related to the actual procurement of power.”
“In fact, we expect to be ready to procure power this year, ahead of the statutory deadline,” Crowder said. “The company’s revenues and profits are fully decoupled from both sales and expenses, so there is no financial incentive for UI to delay or oppose this program.”
Crowder said while PURA has the authority to levy fines in this particular case, “they are not paid from ratepayer dollars.”
Tricia Taskey Modifica, a spokeswoman for Eversource, said the company is “focused on innovative solutions that lower costs for our customers, improve reliability and advance a clean energy future while maximizing the benefits of resources like solar, offshore wind and electric vehicles.”
“We continue to develop the administrative and technological needs for this program while working with our regulators,” Modifica said.
Charles Rothenberger, a climate and energy attorney with the New Haven-based Connecticut Fund for the Environment, said “while it’s not unheard of for PURA to levy fines in cases like these, it clearly reflects some frustration on their part.”
State officials have been discussing shared renewable energy programs, especially those involving solar energy, since 2014. Shared solar energy programs, for example, involve setting up photovolatic panels in a remote location and distributing the electricity that is generated to members who sign up for the service.
The program that is at the center of PURA’s frustration with the utilities involves setting up shared renewable energy projects across the state that would produce up to 25 megawatts of electricity for a period of six years, according to Rothenberger.
“This letter is encouraging because it shows that PURA is taking seriously the need to keep this on schedule,” he said. A request for proposals from companies interested in participating in those shared renewable energy projects is supposed to go out in 2021, Rothenberger said, although officials with the two electric companies have tried to push back that deadline by a year.