Frustrations over Connecticut’s high cost of electricity and concerns over its ability to adequately regulate Eversource, the state’s largest distributor of electricity, are fueling a bipartisan effort to revise the complex rules of utility regulation for the second time in three years. On Tuesday, the legislature’s Energy and Technology Committee will hold a hearing on two measures intended to give regulators more discretion over rate setting and to shift responsibility for some costs from ratepayers to shareholders, including compensation for executives and lobbying at the state Capitol. Gillett’s recent remarks to lawmakers made clear two things: She believes Eversource, which distributes electricity to all but 20 of Connecticut’s 169 cities and towns, needs far greater oversight than it has received during the administration that employs her; that view is not shared by her two colleagues at PURA. That seemingly put her at cross-purposes with Katie Dykes, the commissioner of DEEP. Dykes, who preceded Gillett as chair of PURA and played a role in recruiting her to Connecticut as her successor, played down any conflict.
CT legislators vow harder look at utilities, and a regulator applauds