PURA Cuts Public Benefits Charge, Lowering CT Electric Bills

Connecticut electricity customers will see their bills drop by roughly 15% starting May 1, after the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority voted unanimously Wednesday to slash the public benefits charge that has inflated monthly costs for years.

The math is simple and welcome. Eversource customers get a 4.3 cent-per-kilowatt-hour reduction, worth about $30 a month on an average bill. United Illuminating customers save a bit more, roughly $34 a month, thanks to a 4.9 cent-per-kilowatt-hour cut. Your actual savings will depend on how much power you use and your rate class, but for most households, this is real money.

What’s driving the drop

The biggest factor, according to PURA and utility officials, is Connecticut’s long-term contracts to buy electricity from two nuclear plants: Millstone Nuclear Power Station in Waterford and Seabrook Station in New Hampshire. Those agreements have locked in relatively stable wholesale power costs at a moment when fossil fuel prices remain volatile. Betting on nuclear, it turns out, was smart.

The cuts also reflect savings tied to Senate Bill 4, the omnibus energy legislation passed last year and designed to give residents relief from surging electricity costs. Lawmakers who backed that bill were quick to claim credit Wednesday.

Gov. Ned Lamont framed it as vindication. “Today’s announcement by PURA is good news for residents, who are soon to get some much-needed relief,” Lamont said in a statement. “This is the direct result of the difficult but necessary decisions we made over the past few years, including restructuring utility arrearages and betting on nuclear power to offset the volatility of fossil fuel prices. I’m glad these decisions are paying off and helping to lower bills for our residents.”

A messy history

Not everyone is celebrating without caveats. Eversource spokeswoman Jamie Ratliff acknowledged the rate drop but noted it partly functions as a retroactive correction. She said Eversource had pushed PURA last year to cut the public benefits charge more aggressively. The regulator at the time, then-Chair Marissa Gillett, took a more cautious approach and set rates higher than the actual cost of state-mandated contracts.

“The former PURA leadership set the rates higher than the actual cost of those state-mandated contracts last year, despite our strong recommendation to the contrary,” Ratliff said. “Customers are basically seeing a refund of that cost.”

Gillett stepped down in October. The board has since turned over entirely, with four new members now seated. That leadership change appears to have shifted the regulatory posture toward more aggressive rate adjustments, though whether that’s a permanent shift or a one-time correction isn’t yet clear.

Ratliff also flagged something worth keeping in mind as summer approaches: the public benefits charge reduction is temporary, and electricity usage typically climbs during the hottest months. Higher consumption could offset a chunk of what customers save on the rate side. The new rates run through April 30, 2027, and PURA may revisit the public benefits charge again in September.

What this means for your bill

For Fairfield County commuters who’ve watched their electricity bills spike alongside everything else, the timing is decent but not perfect. Summer air conditioning loads will arrive right as the savings kick in, which could mute the impact on your actual monthly statement. Still, a lower base rate is better than a higher one, and the nuclear contracts provide some insulation from the kind of price spikes that hammered New England ratepayers during the winters of 2022 and 2023.

The public benefits charge covers costs utilities pass through to customers for state-mandated programs: clean energy contracts, low-income customer assistance, energy efficiency initiatives. Stripping it back to near zero doesn’t kill those programs. It means the accounting for them shifts, at least temporarily. What that means for long-term clean energy investment in Connecticut is a question PURA hasn’t fully answered.

This reporting builds on coverage first published by CT Mirror.

What to watch

September’s potential PURA review is the next meaningful checkpoint. If the board decides to make further changes to the public benefits charge at that point, it could either lock in more savings or start walking them back depending on where contract costs land. Customers who want to reduce exposure to rate swings should also look at whether their utility offers fixed-rate or budget billing plans, which smooth out seasonal spikes.

The broader political story here is that Connecticut made a consequential call on nuclear power, and that bet is delivering at the meter. That’s a data point Lamont and the General Assembly’s energy committee will be citing for a while.