Gov. Ned Lamont held a press conference with Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) Commissioner Katie Dykes and the chairs of Connecticut’s Energy and Technology Committee to highlight an average $30 per month decrease to the public benefits charge on ratepayers’ electricity bills due to savings from the state’s contract with the Millstone and Seabrook nuclear power plants.
The decrease, however, is part of the annual adjustment of rates tied to the public benefits charge; ratepayers overpaid for the nuclear contracts last year and this adjustment is a credit being refunded back to ratepayers. The nuclear contract was previously blamed for a huge jump in the public benefits charge by Democrats in 2024 when years’ worth of adjustments that had been paused during the pandemic came due.
The rate change was approved by the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA). The public benefits charge requires ratepayers to pay for government mandated energy programs, including the Millstone contract, covering the cost of those who don’t pay their bill, energy efficiency programs, and solar developments and amounts to roughly $1 billion per year.
Connecticut’s electric rates are second highest in the country, and the cost of energy has become a political talking point in the lead up to the 2026 elections in which Lamont will be running for a third term. Republicans in the General Assembly have called for the elimination of the public benefits charge, although Lamont said during the press conference, “we’re not playing that game.”
Dykes credited the Millstone and Seabrook contracts with the savings and commended Lamont for approving legislation in 2019 that green-lighted the contracts.
“The decrease is in part due to the contracts that Gov. Lamont helped to ensure and we were able to negotiate and enter into the Millstone and Seabrook nuclear power plants back in 2019,” Dykes said, “which provide energy at fixed prices and insulates ratepayers from volatile fossil fuel pricing.”
Dykes said the contracts with the nuclear power plants saved Connecticut ratepayers roughly $250 million in 2025 and $200 million so far in 2026. The set price for nuclear power provides a hedge when prices for natural gas – which supplies most of the state’s energy – rise due to supply issues, which can be affected by international events like the war in Ukraine or the war in Iran.
Lamont said Connecticut ratepayers could have been spared more pain had the Revolution Wind farm been up and running during the winter, although the contract with Revolution Wind sets the price per kilowatt hour at twice that of the nuclear contracts and can supply relatively little electricity into the grid.
“If we had had our wind power going at almost ten cents a kilowatt hour, that would have stabilized prices and led to grid reliability,” Lamont said, adding that natural gas spikes five to ten times higher than the contracted costs for nuclear and wind. “That would have stabilized things in a dramatic way. The good news is Revolution Wind; the turbines are spinning now.”
Eversource officials, however, indicated that customers may not see much of a change in their bill as usage generally increases during the summer, and said the former PURA chairman Marissa Gillett set rates too high, which is why customers are receiving a credit back. They also warned that prices could increase in the future.
“We are deeply concerned because if all program and contract costs stay the same, customers will see a significant increase to their bill next year when the refund of this overcollection ends,” Eversource Spokesperson Sarah Paduano said in a statement. “We appreciate PURA’s recent actions to improve and normalize this annual ratemaking process for the benefit of customers as well as their decision to take an important step forward in storm cost predictability, which lowers costs for customers and can help mitigate some of the potential increase next year.”
Gillett resigned her position in October 2025 amid a scandal that involved withholding documents from Freedom of Information requests, deleting text messages, making unilateral decisions on substantive matters and allegedly colluding with Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex, and Rep. Jonathan Steinberg, D-Westport, to publish an op-ed blasting the utility companies. Lamont backed Gillett for reappointment in 2025.
Needleman said during the press conference that he wants to make sure the public understands that much of the public benefits charge is tied to energy contracts meant to stabilize prices and not “social programs.”
“We’re working to develop energy policy that makes sure we are secure in having adequate supply, having reliability, managing it against costs, and still staying true to our environmental goals,” Needleman said. “There was a lot of misinformation about what public benefits actually meant, and a lot of people had their hair on fire about it.”
Last year, the General Assembly passed a large energy bill that, among other things, removed $100 million in public benefits charges from the cost of electricity and paid those costs through bonding.
Although this rate decrease is tied to the annual ups and downs of Connecticut’s energy regulation, Eversource has warned that when it comes in for its rate-setting hearing, there could be billions more in costs tied to delayed repayment of storm costs and government-mandated smart meter infrastructure upgrades.
“There’s some good news coming in your electric bills in about eight days,” Lamont said. “And I think that’s going to continue in the near term.”
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Yeah, it is a refund for what I was overcharged for. Thanks for nothing Ned. PURA still owes Eversource $1.5 BILLION for storm costs with interest growing every day on that. When is that getting paid off?