Connecticut business energy: Eversource and UI

Two distribution companies, one regulator, and the licence behind the pitch

Connecticut restructured its electric industry in the late 1990s so that Eversource and United Illuminating could no longer generate power: the Office of Consumer Counsel's own description is that they act strictly as distribution companies and must buy electricity from third-party suppliers. What a business buys from a competitive supplier is therefore generation supply only, carried over wires that stay with the distribution company named on the service address. PURA, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, is the regulator, and it licenses electric suppliers under Conn. Gen. Stat. 16-245, a route in which the Authority judges an applicant's technical, financial and managerial capability before granting a licence to serve named customer classes. Aggregators run on a separate track: the statute's own definition is a person, municipality or regional water authority that gathers electric customers together to negotiate the purchase of generation services, and registration is distinct from a supply licence. PURA also maintains what it calls Connecticut's Official Generation Supply Rate Board for comparing offers. Eversource says on its own service-territory page that its Connecticut electric footprint covers 157 towns. United Illuminating is the second distribution company, and PURA's supplier material names the two together; a business does not choose between them.

• Eversource and United Illuminating are the two electric distribution companies, and a site takes whichever serves its address.
• Supplying generation requires a PURA licence under Conn. Gen. Stat. 16-245, granted after a review of technical, financial and managerial capability.
• Aggregators register on a separate track, and the statutory definition reaches a municipality or a regional water authority.
• Eversource's own service-territory page states that its Connecticut electric territory is 157 towns.
• Because the restructuring barred the distribution companies from generating, supply always arrives from a third party.

Connecticut is the most heavily shopped electricity market covered here

A state market page usually has to argue that retail choice amounts to something. Connecticut is the opposite case. EIA's Connecticut electricity profile splits the state's retail sales into full service provider sales and energy-only provider sales, and in the profile the two totals are 13,863,266 megawatt-hours and 13,488,089 megawatt-hours respectively, against total retail sales of 27,351,355 megawatt-hours. Energy-only supply is carrying just under half of the state's retail load, a share no other market covered on this site approaches, and a direct measure of how ordinary shopping is for a Connecticut account. The state's own consumer material reinforces it: the Office of Consumer Counsel points businesses at the third-party supplier market as a way to lower a bill, and PURA keeps the rate board that lists what suppliers are offering. The practical consequence for a commercial buyer is that Connecticut is not a market where choice has to be explained. Suppliers compete hard here, and what separates one offer from another is the account's own load history and contract terms rather than the case for shopping at all. That puts the emphasis on the input: an offer priced on an assumed annual volume is only comparable to the benchmark when the same twelve months of the account's own readings are used on both sides, and when the term lengths match.

• EIA puts energy-only provider sales at 13,488,089 MWh against full service provider sales of 13,863,266 MWh, out of 27,351,355 MWh of retail sales.
• That is just under half of Connecticut's retail electricity supplied by energy-only providers.
• PURA maintains the Official Generation Supply Rate Board for comparing supplier offers.
• The Office of Consumer Counsel directs businesses to the third-party supplier market.
• Where shopping is this common, the differentiator is the account's own usage history, not the argument for choice.

Standard Service is procured twice a year, and it is a pass-through

The default a non-shopping Connecticut account sits on is Standard Service, and it does not behave like a posted tariff. The Office of Consumer Counsel states that every six-month period PURA approves the Standard Service supply rate following a competitive procurement process, with the rate effective from 1 January to 30 June and again from 1 July to 31 December. The mechanics explain why the benchmark moves: the distribution companies assemble a portfolio of contracts with wholesale suppliers through competitive bidding under a PURA-approved Procurement Plan, supervised and administered by the PURA Procurement Manager with the Office of Consumer Counsel participating, and the process deliberately captures competitive prices several times a year, which the office calls laddering. The rate is a pass-through: what the customer pays the distribution company goes to the supplier, and Eversource and United Illuminating take no profit on the supply line. Two things follow for a business. A supply offer written over two or three years is being judged against a benchmark that resets twice in each of them, so the only fair comparison is supply-to-supply on the same volumes and the same term. And a bill says where the account stands: the consumer counsel's own check is the first-page header, where the line names the electricity supplier, and if that line names Eversource or United Illuminating the site is on Standard Service.

• PURA approves the Standard Service supply rate once every six-month period after a competitive procurement.
• Each rate runs 1 January to 30 June, then 1 July to 31 December.
• Procurement follows a PURA-approved Procurement Plan run by the PURA Procurement Manager, with the consumer counsel participating.
• Laddering captures competitive prices several times a year rather than once.
• Standard Service is a pass-through, and the distribution companies earn nothing on the supply line.
• A first-page bill header naming Eversource or United Illuminating as the supplier means the account is on Standard Service.

In Connecticut the costly half of the year is winter, not summer

Most of Connecticut's electricity is generated from natural gas, and New England's gas becomes constrained in winter. The Office of Consumer Counsel states the consequence plainly in the alert it issues at each Standard Service reset: the state usually has lower supply rates during the higher-usage summer months and higher rates during the lower-usage winter months, because gas burned for heating competes with gas burned for generation and the pipeline capacity into the region is the binding limit. That inverts the seasonal logic a business might expect. A site without electric heat draws less power in winter and yet pays more per kilowatt-hour for it, so the price signal lands in the months the meter is quietest. The structure of the decision follows from that. A fixed price per kilowatt-hour across a term containing a winter is a hedge against the constrained months, and an indexed price is an acceptance of them. Which is worth more depends on how much of the account's annual consumption falls in the heating season, a figure the site's own twelve monthly meter readings supply directly, and the one number worth computing before any offer is weighed. The arithmetic is a division rather than a rate: add the kilowatt-hours recorded in the four or five coldest months, divide by the annual total, and the percentage is the share of consumption exposed to the winter price. Generating capacity is not the variable to watch in this state; fuel delivery is.

• Connecticut's power is mostly gas-fired, and the region's gas supply is constrained in winter.
• The consumer counsel's stated pattern is lower supply rates in high-usage summer and higher rates in low-usage winter.
• A site without electric heat consumes least in the months when supply costs the most.
• Compute the winter share of annual kilowatt-hours from the site's own monthly readings before choosing between a fixed and an indexed price.
• A fixed price over a term containing a winter is a hedge; an indexed price passes that winter through.
• The binding constraint is fuel delivery into New England, not generating capacity.

Where the state's programmes sit, and where they do not

Connecticut runs a set of business-facing energy programmes that are easy to confuse with supply choice, and they are not that. PURA's own electric pages list the Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions Program, a regulatory sandbox called the Innovative Energy Solutions Program, an Electric Vehicle Charging Program, and two internal units, the Clean and Affordable Energy Unit for affordability work and a Reliability, Security and Resilience unit. Each is a filing or programme route with its own eligibility, and none of them changes who generates the account's electricity. The capital-financing route is separate again and sits with the Connecticut Green Bank, which administers the state's Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy programme. C-PACE is voluntary, eligible on nonresidential property and on multifamily buildings of five units or more, and unavailable for state- or municipally-owned property or smaller multifamily buildings. A municipality must opt in by passing a resolution and signing an agreement with the Green Bank before a project inside it can proceed. Where it applies, the programme can finance up to the whole of eligible project cost, and the assessment term generally may not exceed 25 years unless the Green Bank approves otherwise in writing. Repayment is a benefit assessment on the property tax bill rather than a service charge, which is why it attaches to the building and travels with it on a sale. An efficiency or solar project financed that way and a supply contract are different instruments: the first buys a capital improvement, the second buys generation.

• PURA's electric programmes include the Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions Program, the Innovative Energy Solutions sandbox, an EV charging programme, and the Clean and Affordable Energy and Reliability, Security and Resilience units.
• None of those is a supply alternative; each has its own filing route and eligibility.
• C-PACE is administered by the Connecticut Green Bank and is voluntary.
• Eligible property is nonresidential and multifamily of five units or more; state, municipal and smaller multifamily property is outside it.
• A municipality must opt in by resolution and agreement with the Green Bank before projects there proceed.
• Financing can cover up to the whole of eligible project cost, with an assessment term generally capped at 25 years, repaid through the property tax bill.

What to assemble before a Connecticut quote

The preparation has the same shape as anywhere else, but the Connecticut-specific items are the ones that go wrong. First, establish whether the site is on Standard Service or with a supplier, from the bill header rather than from memory, because that answer decides what the comparison is against. Second, take the rate class and the service voltage from the bill, twelve months of kilowatt-hours, and the demand readings if the schedule is demand-metered; Connecticut's winter inversion means the monthly split matters as much as the annual total. Third, take the current contract's end date and its notice period from the agreement itself rather than from the invoice, since the notice obligation lives in the contract. Fourth, take the account and meter numbers. If the site is one location in a chain, the aggregation question is a portfolio question rather than a Connecticut one, and the pieces have to line up across territories and contract end dates. HighGround works as an advisor-assisted channel rather than a rate table, sourcing electricity and natural gas supply through the Broker Online Exchange supplier network. HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

• Confirm from the bill header whether the account buys from a supplier or sits on Standard Service.
• Electric: rate class, service voltage, twelve months of kilowatt-hours with demand readings, and the monthly split across the heating season.
• The contract's end date and notice period come from the agreement rather than the invoice.
• Account and meter numbers for each location, and for a chain, whether the purchase is being run as a portfolio across territories.
• Competitive supply depends on the service address, the meter and the utility territory; municipal utilities, cooperatives and some jurisdictions have no choice at all.
• HighGround may receive provider compensation on completed purchases, and an inquiry places no order and switches no supplier.

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