Frank Reynolds is president and CEO of United Illuminating, an electric company based in Orange that serves more than 341,000 customers in Connecticut.
Reynolds is the public face of his company’s policy battle with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority over cuts to its recent rate increase request.
UI has filed a lawsuit in New Britain Superior Court appealing PURA’s decision, which approved a revenue requirement that was 22% less than the $131 million the utility requested over a three-year period.
He says PURA’s new performance-based ratemaking framework has prevented UI from recovering costs on current and future projects, which is creating a backlog. It’s also affecting the company’s margins.
UI is also on the other side of a high-profile legal battle. The company is being sued by Attorney General William Tong, who is seeking $25,000-a-day in fines for each of six alleged violations involving UI’s remediation of the English Station, a defunct power plant in New Haven that the company shut down in 1992.
UI defended itself, arguing it “has gone above and beyond its obligations for the cleanup of English Station,” and that Tong is simply engaging in “heated rhetoric.”
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UI is a subsidiary of utility giant Avangrid, which is owned by the Spanish energy company Iberdrola. UI’s revenue comprises about 15% of Avangrid’s total.
Reynolds was appointed president and CEO of UI in 2020. He began his career at Southern Connecticut Gas as part of a rotational program for new engineers.
Born in Jamaica, he moved to the United States with his family when he was 4.
He has a bachelor’s degree from Central Connecticut State University and received his MBA in finance at the University of New Haven.
He also spent 20 years in the Connecticut Army National Guard, retiring in 2004 with the rank of major.