AG protests Eversource merger cost recovery

Eversource is trying to recover additional costs stemming from its 2012 merger with NStar, but is battling Attorney General George Jepsen and Consumer Counsel Elin Swanson Katz over the state utility regulator’s role in the process.

Eversource (formerly Northeast Utilities) informed the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) in late October that it wants recover merger costs that were previously excluded by PURA’s original approval of the merger.

In order to recover the costs, Eversource wants to ask the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve amended transmission tariffs. The tariff amendment would amount to less than a penny a day for customers in Eversource’s service territory and would end after one year, the company said.

Eversource argued that it did not need PURA pre-approval to initiate a FERC case for its electric subsidiaries. That prompted protests from Jepsen and Swanson Katz, which caused Eversource to place its FERC filing on hold.

The two argued that Eversource’s proposal “violates both the letter and spirit of the settlement agreement, which specifically prohibited [Eversource’s] recovery of any merger related costs without prior PURA approval.”

Eversource argues that PURA has no jurisdiction over the federal regulatory proceeding. It also argues that its FERC filing would comply with the PURA settlement agreement because it doesn’t seek to recover any payments made to executive and doesn’t seek to recover any merger costs already recovered through retail rates.

It has asked PURA to confirm before year’s end that it has no objection to the proposed FERC filing.

Swanson Katz wrote that Eversource should not file its tariff case with FERC until PURA is finished reviewing its cost recovery proposal. Eversource disputes that interpretation and says Swanson Katz’s claim would allow PURA to “step into FERC’s shoes” and make transmission rate decisions for out-of-state utility subsidiaries, including NStar, Western Massachusetts Electric Co. and Public Service of New Hampshire.

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Fed. regulator probes electric transmission rates amid rising costs