The state’s utilities overseer has given final approval to a three-year, $30.2 million rate increase for Eversource Energy’s gas customers.
Eversource’s gas utility, which has approximately 232,000 customers in Connecticut, had originally asked the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) for a total rate increase of $86 million, with $49 million of it kicking in during the first year.
Several months later, in September, Eversource reached a settlement agreement with the Office of Consumer Counsel and PURA’s prosecutorial unit that called for a smaller increase — including a $1.4 million increase in the first year (which begins Jan. 1, 2019), $15.8 million in the second year and $13 million in the third year.
PURA’s final decision on Wednesday approved that settlement agreement. The deal allows the utility company a 9.3 percent return on equity in 2019 through 2021, which PURA said is slightly below the 2018 industry average of 9.55 percent.
It also allows for the replacement of leak-prone gas mains and credits customers with 100 percent of the tax savings the company received under the Federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, PURA said.
