PURA orders $37M in rate cuts for Connecticut gas companies

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority ordered rate decreases for customers of two Connecticut gas companies on Wednesday, following a lengthy legal battle in which regulators admitted making procedural errors under former PURA chief Marissa Gillett. Those errors forced a judge to toss the authority’s original 2024 decision cutting rates for the two companies, Southern Connecticut Gas and Connecticut Natural Gas, by a combined $35 million. On remand, however, PURA ordered even larger cuts totaling $37 million, or about 4.2% of current revenues. Much of the reduction was due to regulators’ determination that the two companies must return $120 million in past overcollections to customers by Nov. 30, 2027. PURA also approved a return on equity of 9.20% for both companies. “PURA was right from the start to slash these rates,” Attorney General William Tong said in a statement Wednesday. “Connecticut families cannot afford to bankroll padded profits and unsupported and unnecessary expenses.” Tong added, “CNG was over-collecting millions of dollars from Connecticut families before they had the gall to ask for more. PURA got this one right.” Both SGC and CNG are subsidiaries of Avangrid, which also owns the United Illuminating electric company based in Orange. Angela Baccaro, an Avangrid spokeswoman, said in a statement on Wednesday that the decision to cut the companies’ revenues would play a “significant role” in their ability to make future investments in the state’s gas infrastructure. “We are reviewing PURA’s decision and are disappointed that it does not meaningfully resolve the concerns raised by the Superior Court, which found clear evidence of prejudice and bias against CNG and SCG and concluded the companies had not received the fair legal process required by law,” Baccaro said. “This final outcome remains largely unchanged from the original decision and leaves critical issues unresolved, despite their significant operational, financial, and customer impacts.” Neither PURA nor Avangrid immediately released a bill impact assessment on either decision Wednesday. Both of the remanded rate cases were approved by a 3-0 vote of the authority on Wednesday morning. PURA Chairman Thomas Wiehl, who worked on the previous applications of SCG and CNG while serving as an attorney for the state Office of Consumer Counsel, recused from both decisions. Vice Chair David Arconti, who previously worked as a lobbyist for United Illuminating, also signaled his intention to recuse from both dockets, Wiehl said. Arconti did not participate in Wednesday’s meeting. One of the commissioners who supported the decisions, Janice Beecher, defended the authority’s handling of the remanded cases. Each of the commissioners involved, she said, took a fresh look at cases before issuing their final decision. “The new findings are not tweaks, they reflect our judgement of the facts and issues of this case,” Beecher said. Gillett, the former chair, stepped down in October after facing growing scrutiny from lawmakers and utility officials over her leadership of PURA. Within weeks of her departure, attorneys representing the authority in the appeal of SCG and CNG’s rate cases conceded that Gillett had violated the law by appointing herself “presiding officer” over matters before PURA, without a vote of her fellow commissioners. Gillett also faced allegations that she deleted text messages with lawmakers to hide her involvement in drafting an op-ed that was harshly critical of the state’s utility companies, including Avangrid and Eversource. Gillett denied the allegations. The judge overseeing Avangrid’s appeal of the original SCG/CNG cases, Matthew Budzik of the New Britain Superior Court, also referred two attorneys representing PURA to the Statewide Grievance Committee to determine whether they misled the court during the effort to uncover Gillett’s personal phone records. An attorney for the Grievance Committee, which reviews ethics complaints against lawyers, said in an email Wednesday that there was no public resolution to either referral.