DPUC Tells Rell Power Rates To Jump 20 Percent

 HARTFORD (AP) — Add electricity to the list of energy bills predicted to climb this winter.

Republican Governor M. Jodi Rell warned last Friday that the Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) is predicting possible 20 percent increases in electric bills for the average Connecticut Light & Power Co. residential ratepayer early next year.

Rates for commercial and industrial customers could be higher or lower than 20 percent, she said.

Meanwhile, United Illuminating Co., the state’s other electricity supplier, is asking the DPUC for an 8.5 percent rate increase over four years. UI serves customers in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas.

DPUC Chairman Donald W. Downes said his agency expects CL&P to file a rate increase request next month, after the competitive bidding process for the utility’s electricity suppliers ends.

The state’s deregulation law required the state’s power companies to divest themselves from power generating businesses. State lawmakers predicted that electricity rates would drop once there was competition among power producers.

But market forces appear to be driving the rates. Oil and natural gas-fired plants supply much of the utility’s electricity.

“Because oil and natural gas costs are going through the roof, electricity costs are also shooting up,” Rell said. “In the end, it’s always the ratepayer who gets stuck with the bill.”

The projected CL&P rate increases are expected to take effect in January and show up on consumer bills in February. A household currently paying $85 monthly would face a $17 increase.

CL&P serves about a million customers, about 80 percent of Connecticut’s total.

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal on Friday vowed to fight both CL&P and United Illuminating’s proposed rate increases. He said he was considering the legal options.

“These astronomic and appalling rate hikes must be stopped dead,” Blumenthal said. “Actions should be taken immediately to control and cap rates before they spiral upward and cripple our economy.”

He added that while consumers are tightening their budgets for pay for unprecedented energy costs, the utility companies should do the same.

The biggest chunk of UI’s proposed $61 million increase, $37 million, would come next year, with smaller increases in each of the following years, Blumenthal said.

UI, which serves more than 320,000 electricity customers, said the typical household using 500 kilowatt-hours per month would see a $4 increase in its monthly electric bill. The increase would be used to help the company replace its aging distribution system and cover increasing operating costs, the company said.

“This requested increase is necessary to improve UI’s financial integrity, to enable us to prepare for the expected retirements of many of our highly skilled workers, to help us plan for the replacement of our aging electric distribution infrastructure, and to cover increased operating costs,” Anthony J. Vallillo, president and chief operating officer of UI, said in July.

UI said 1994 was the last time UI’s distribution rate was increased, which was prior to the restructuring of the electric industry.

The DPUC is expected to make a decision on the request in January.