A local consumer advocate group and state agencies are asking the Public Utilities Commission to reverse a recent decision allowing Eversource, the state’s largest energy provider, to raise its fees.
The July ruling allowed Eversource to raise its residential customer charge – the flat fee all customers pay regardless of usage — by $6 dollars, to just under $20 per month and allow it to increase by $2 per year through 2029 until it reaches $43 dollar per month.
The Office of the Consumer Advocate, the New Hampshire Department of Energy, and the state’s AARP chapter all filed rehearing motions on Aug. 22, which is the first step to requesting an appeal on this decision.
Don Kreis, the state’s consumer advocate, called the decision to approve the fee increase “plainly illegal.” He said state law indicates rates have to be “just and reasonable.”
But in this case, the commission “abdicated its role as the arbiter between the interests of shareholders and customers and approved rates that are not just and reasonable.”
Other advocates fear people already hit hard by the state’s high cost of living will be squeezed even further.
“That charge affects people who have low usage more than people who have high usage,” said Christina FitzPatrick, director of New Hampshire’s AARP chapter. “And that includes people who are living alone. They're just going to use less electricity than a big family living in a big house, but the customer charge is the same.”
In its filing for a rehearing with the PUC, the DOE asked for additional clarification about how Eversource may offset the increase in the residential customer charge.
In the July decision, the commission also allowed the utility to change how it calculates its annual distribution rate increases, which advocates have said will reduce regulatory oversight. This followed a separate, already approved decision that raised supply rates on Aug. 1.
Eversource defended these changes, saying they are necessary given increased costs since the utility’s last rate case in 2019. It filed an objection to the rehearing requests Sept. 2.
“The inflationary challenges we've experienced across the economy over the last several years have really impacted our costs since our last distribution rate case went into effect,” said William Hinkle, Eversource spokesperson.
According to Hinkle, grid materials have jumped substantially since 2019. He said utility poles have increased nearly 30%, transformers have increased by roughly 130%, and a spool of distribution wire has gone up by about 50%.
“This is a regular practice in states across the country where utilities must seek their revenue from regulators,” he said. “That need for revenue is a direct result of investments in safe and reliable service for our customers.”
The Office of the Consumer Advocate raised concerns with the changes to the ratemaking process for the utility, among other issues in the July ruling. But Kreis said he thinks challenges to those are less likely to be successful. If the commission denies the rehearing request, Kreis said his office will consider an appeal with the state Supreme Court.
Gov. Kelly Ayotte criticized the commission's decision earlier this summer and supports a rehearing of the case.
“The PUC should be protecting ratepayers instead of enabling rate hikes on hardworking families,” she wrote in an email to NHPR. “We need a regulatory process that is transparent, accountable, and focused on lowering costs for Granite Staters instead of lining utility companies’ pockets.”
The PUC has 10 days to respond to the rehearing requests. It declined to comment on the rehearing requests.
