Marissa Gillett, chair of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, has brought an all-new approach to the regulatory environment in Connecticut. She has also more closely scrutinized rate increase requests from utility companies, sparking a high-profile power struggle.
Gillett, who became PURA’s chair in 2019, has made implementing performance-based ratemaking, which was mandated by the legislature in 2020, a hallmark of her tenure.
Performance-based ratemaking sets rates based on how well a utility meets certain goals, taking into consideration outcomes and value to customers.
Consumer advocates have lauded Gillett’s efforts, but she’s attracted the ire of both Eversource and United Illuminating by rejecting — in some cases by wide margins — rate increase requests made by both energy companies.
United Illuminating and Eversource-owned Aquarion Water Co., based in Bridgeport, have filed lawsuits appealing PURA’s rate decisions, claiming the agency has prevented them from recovering costs for current and future capital projects, as well as operating expenses.
The utilities say the new regulatory environment has hurt their ability to attract investors and lowered their margins to untenable levels.
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But Gillett has been adamant that future capital investment costs shouldn’t count in rate cases until after the investments have been made.
Gillett says Gov. Ned Lamont hired her to effect change.
“If there is discomfort with the fact that I’ve kind of thrown the doors wide open here and invited in different perspectives, I would embrace that critique because that was intentional,” Gillett told the Hartford Business Journal in 2023.
Gillett has a law degree as well as a degree in bioengineering.
Before joining PURA, she was the vice president of external relations for the Energy Storage Association, a national trade group representing the energy storage industry. From 2011 to 2018, Gillett worked at Maryland’s energy utilities regulator, the Maryland Public Service Commission. Before she left, she was a senior advisor to the chairman.