After six years at the helm of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, PURA Chairwoman Marissa Gillett has embraced her role as a disruptor in Connecticut’s regulatory environment.
Much to the chagrin of Connecticut’s utility companies, Gillett has made implementing performance-based ratemaking, which was mandated by the legislature in 2020, a hallmark of her tenure.
Performance-based ratemaking represents a fundamental shift in how utilities are regulated, moving away from traditional cost-of-service models toward outcome-driven compensation.
The approach ties electric utility revenues to measurable performance metrics aligned with state policy goals, such as affordability, grid resilience and climate objectives.
PURA has been seen as a national leader in implementing the framework.
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While consumer advocates have lauded Gillett’s efforts, 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.
Eversource and United Illuminating claim the new regulatory environment has hurt their ability to attract investors and lowered their margins to untenable levels.
Recently, United Illuminating blamed PURA for putting its finances in such dire straits that its return on equity (a measure of profitability) in 2024 fell to 3.55%.
With such meager returns, United Illuminating said it has been forced to defer investments, such as new substations and protective flood walls.
The high-profile battle even led Eversource and United Illuminating to file a lawsuit accusing Gillett of bypassing the authority of fellow commissioners and issuing hundreds of unilateral decisions in rate cases.
But Gov. Ned Lamont has stood by Gillett’s side, noting “her record of fairness, collaboration and accountability.”
In a 2023 interview with the Hartford Business Journal, Gillett said 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 said.
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.