The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) has issued a preliminary approval for a $58.8 million, three-year rate hike for Avangrid’s electric utility United Illuminating.
The decision, issued the day before Thanksgiving, represents a 40 percent cut to Avangrid’s request of $98 million, including $66 million in 2017, $20 million in 2018 and $12 million in 2019.
PURA revised those figures downward to $41 million, $14.4 million and $3.4 million, respectively.
Avangrid CEO James Torgerson noted during an Oct. 25 earnings call that the state Office of Consumer Counsel had called for only a $27 million rate increase over the three years.
“You can now see what the bookends would be for this,” Torgerson said on the call.
Indeed, the $58.8 million figure is about halfway between Avangrid’s and OCC’s respective asks.
PURA estimates that a UI customer who uses 500 kilowatt hours of electricity each month would experience an overall rate impact of between 2.1 percent and 2.7 percent beginning in January.
The agency also declined Avangrid’s request to increase its return on equity to 9.92 percent. PURA has proposed leaving the company’s ROE flat at 9.15 percent, which it said would be sufficient for Avangrid to fund capital improvements.
A final decision is expected Dec. 14.
Clarification: An earlier version of this story has been clarified to state that Avangrid’s rate request is for its electric utility United Illuminating specifically.
