Ayotte demands return of $1.5B in utility overcharges

(The Center Square) — New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Monday joined a chorus of calls from New England leaders demanding that regional utilities refund ratepayers more than $1.5 billion in overcharges. 

A group of regional utilities, including Eversource and Avangrid, are challenging a ruling by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordering them to repay ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars dating back to 2011, including $150 million for New Hampshire consumers. 

Earlier this year, the federal agency determined that the utilities had been overcharging customers and took steps to force them to reduce their profit margins for the next several years.

But Ayotte criticized utilities for challenging the refund called for by federal regulators, saying it puts "investors before ratepayers at a time when electric bills in New Hampshire and across the region are already too high." 

"Granite Staters are paying way too much for electricity, and it’s unacceptable that utilities would attempt to block relief for ratepayers after overcharging them for more than a decade," Ayotte, a Republican, said in a statement. "New Hampshire joins our fellow New England states in calling for a rejection of this effort by utilities and the return of more than $150 million to ratepayers in our state." 

"We’ll continue working to lower electric bills and hold utilities accountable when they try to boost their bottom lines instead of focusing on keeping rates as low as possible," she added.

In July, New Hampshire’s Department of Energy and Office of the Consumer Advocate joined other New England states in filing a motion to intervene to reject the appeal from utilities.

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“New Hampshire’s Department of Energy and Office of the Consumer Advocate have joined with energy offices across New England to return these dollars to their rightful place: the homes and businesses across the region who have been paying inflated transmission rates for 15 years," Energy Commissioner Jared Chicoine said Monday in a statement. 

New England has some of the highest energy costs in the nation, which critics have attributed in part to resistance to expanding natural gas pipelines, and clean energy policies embraced by neighboring states like Massachusetts, they say, have driven up costs for consumers.

Ayotte, one of only two Republican governors in the New England region, is also opposed to a proposal by power companies to significantly increase the amount of money they are allowed to keep as profits from monthly utility bills. 

In March, FERC cut that base rate to 9.57% from 10.57% after holding that the companies had overcharged consumers for years. The agency ordered the companies to refund ratepayers $1.5 billion by next year. But Eversource and Avangrid filed a legal challenge to overturn the ruling. They are also seeking to delay the refunds.

In a joint filing to regulators, the companies said they need the additional revenue to make investments that help keep costs down and improve the reliability of the regional power grid. They’ve also pointed to state climate change regulations across the region that have driven up costs.

“Growing demand, evolving generation patterns, and heightened reliability and resilience requirements underscore the essential public interest served by sustained transmission investment,” they wrote.