Berlin natural gas utility Eversource Energy, previously known as Yankee Gas, will return $1.5 million to its 220,000 customers starting in December, after a regulatory investigation revealed the company over-earned its approved amount.
Eversource also agreed to not ask for a rate increase until 2017.
Regulators at the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority set how much profit a natural gas, electric, or water utility can earn off of customer rate. For all of 2014, PURA found Eversource overearned above its approved rate of 8.83 percent by between 1.11 percent and 1.62 percent per quarter.
“We are pleased with the decision by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to approve a settlement we reached with the Office of Consumer Counsel and the legal staff of PURA,” Eversource spokesman Mitch Gross said. “It is important to note that we have not had a distribution rate increase in more than three years. The agreement approval comes at a time when so many of our customers have been feeling the pinch of high energy supply prices.”
As a result of the overearnings, Eversource reached an agreement with the Office of Consumer Counsel to begin paying its customers back $1.5 million. Customers will receive the money back in the form of a rate reduction credit for three months starting in December.
In February, Northeast Utilities changed its brand name to Eversource Energy, including renaming as Eversource energy all its subsidiaries, including Connecticut Light & Power, NStar, and Yankee Gas. This ruling only applies to customers of the formerly named Yankee Gas.
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