The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has decided Berlin electric utility Connecticut Light & Power can recover an extra $9 million of its costs from the 2011-2012 storms, on top of the $365 million regulators already have authorized.
The $9 million will not come from ratepayers. Instead, PURA told CL&P to recover the $9 million from telecommunications company AT&T.
PURA ruled in June that because AT&T owns a portion of the poles and other infrastructure impacted during Tropical Storm Irene and the October nor’easter in 2011, the telecommunications company should pick up $9 million of the CL&P’s tab from doing repair and restoration work on those poles.
In its ruling, PURA instructed CL&P to recover the money directly from AT&T and at no point recover that $9 million from ratepayers.
AT&T was not immediately available for comment.
CL&P initially filed for $414 million to cover expenses of outage restoration and damage recovery from five storms in 2011 and 2012. PURA ruled CL&P could recover $365 million of that money from ratepayers over a six-year period starting Dec. 1.
PURA’s decision did not address whether CL&P should be assessed a penalty of up to $143 million for the 2011 storms. Any possible penalty would come as part of CL&P’s regular rate case, which will be finalized by the end of November.
