(New Britain, CT) – The Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel joined with consumer advocates in three other New England states to fight against regional, electric generation rate hikes. The four ratepayer watchdogs formally protested an ISO-New England plan that could significantly increase costs that consumers pay to for winter fuel stockpiles.
Last month, ISO-New England filed a plan with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) pegging the costs that ISO-New England pays for stockpiled liquid natural gas (“LNG”) to the prices at which the LNG trades on European markets that also supply the fuel to New England.
The change in the pricing structure could potentially triple the costs that New England consumers pay for LNG that goes into the region’s Inventoried Energy Program (“IEP”), which is designed to prepare for fuel shortages during winter months. The cost of the IEP could jump from $300 million to more than $800 million. Those increased costs would ultimately be borne by ratepayers in the six New England states that ISO-NE serves.
On Friday, Connecticut OCC joined with the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate, and the Maine Office of the Public Advocate to contest the changes to the IEP pricing formula. ISO-NE must show that the rates that would result from the IEP amendments are “just and reasonable.” OCC argued along with its sister agencies that IS0-NE had not met that threshold.
“This questionable program should not be redesigned to add even more costs onto consumers’ electric bills. ISO-NE did not even try to justify these changes with any study or analysis. That’s unacceptable,” Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said. “While we understand that maintaining reliable fuel resources during the winter months is fundamental to our region’s power grid, ISO-New England needs to do its homework before proposing to burden Connecticut’s residents and businesses with even higher electricity prices.”
FERC reviews any changes to the IEP program and will determine whether the IEP changes are justified.
The filing, in Docket Number ER23-1588, is online at the FERC website.
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