Kenneth Bowes spent most of the afternoon answering questions about the company's resiliency programs.
A fight is brewing over a request by Connecticut's largest utility to raise rates by $232 million to upgrade equipment following destructive storms. The first of three related public hearings took place on Wednesday.
Connecticut Light and Power is making the argument that rates should be higher. Customers will pay an average $150 more a year, up about six percent, if regulators side with CL&P, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities.
Consumer advocates say monthly charges would rise regardless of how much electricity is used, which they say would threaten efforts to conserve electricity.
The utility company said in a a news release that it has not filed for a rate increase since 2010. "Last year, we had our best reliability year in over a decade, thanks to changes we've made on the system," said Bill Herdegen, CL&P President. "Our targeted investments are helping to build the electric grid of the future -- one that is more reliable, more resilient, and more efficient."
James Judge, Chief Financial Officer for CL&P, told the PURA panel on Wednesday that the rate hike is needed to recover the costs of upgrades to the system during a two year rate freeze instituted as part of the merger agreement between Northeast Utilities and NStar.
"This includes $465 million that we have already spent on infrastructure that is already in service," said Judge. "CL&P is committed to taking the steps necessary to ensure a high level of reliability for customers is sustained over the long term."
Kenneth Bowes, CL&P's Vice President of Engineering, spent most of the afternoon answering questions about the company's resiliency programs, an effort to protect the grid from damage from future storms. Bowes was asked about a program to strengthen overhead wires at rights-of-way, rail crossings, and river crossings.
"Those rights-of-way tend to connect CL&P's bulk distribution substations to smaller distribution substations at the local level," Bowes said. "They become the critical path for large blocks of customers during extreme weather events."
Hearings will continue through the fall, with a final decision on the rate hike expected from PURA by early December. State officials, including Governor Malloy and U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, have written letters to PURA asking them to deny the utility's request.
This report includes information from The Associated Press.
