High electric bills have become a fact of life for Connecticut residents, who paid the highest bills in the country outside of Hawaii in 2021, and combined with lingering frustrations over lengthy power outages after recent damaging storms, so is outright public anger at United Illuminating and Eversource. It was no surprise then, that announcements that electric bills would rise between 40 and 50 percent in January would spark a fresh wave of outrage from Connecticut’s electric customers. But Avangrid, the parent company of United Illuminating – which serves 17 towns in the Bridgeport and New Haven areas – said that anger is misplaced, and should be directed at power generators that they say are allowed to operate with too little scrutiny. Avangrid – which has expanded into offshore wind development in recent years – reported earnings of $749 million for the first three quarters of 2022, up from $609 million for the same period in 2021, and almost as much as the $780 million profit it reported for all of 2021.
As Energy Prices Soar, Avangrid Places Blame on Companies Generating the Electricity