Docket No. ER25-167-000
I dissent from today’s order granting the Construction Work in Progress (CWIP) and Abandoned Plant Incentives to United Illuminating Company for its transmission project relocating, rebuilding, and upgrading certain transmission lines between Fairfield, Connecticut, and West Haven, Connecticut (Project).[1] Rather than being confined locally to Connecticut, the costs of this Project, including any incentives granted for the Project, will be regionally cost allocated under the ISO New England Inc. Open Access Transmission Tariff.[2] Understandably, several New England consumer advocates—specifically, the Maine Office of the Public Advocate; the New Hampshire Office of the Consumer Advocate; the Massachusetts Office of the Attorney General, Office of Ratepayer Advocacy; and even the Connecticut Office of Consumer Counsel (together, Consumer Advocates)—strongly oppose the award of incentives to this Project due to the unjust and unreasonable shift in project risk to consumers who already pay some of the nation’s highest transmission costs.[3] This is yet another example of why this Commission must revisit transmission incentives comprehensively.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
[1] See Order at PP 3-6 (describing the Project).
[2] Transmittal at 3.
[3] See Consumer Advocates Protest at 5; see also Potomac Economics, 2023 Assessment of the ISO New England Electricity Markets 4 (June 2024), https://www.potomaceconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ISO-NE-2023-EMM-Report_Final.pdf.