Connecticut Commercial Electricity: Eversource & UI Rates 2026
Connecticut commercial electricity rates face a dual-threat in 2026: ISO-NE winter supply volatility and massive state-mandated "Public Benefit" surcharges. To survive the regulatory overhead imposed on Eversource and United Illuminating (UI) delivery bills, businesses must abandon utility Standard Service for third-party contracts and relentlessly execute peak-load shaving to compress capacity (ICAP) obligations.
Executive Impact
- →The Public Benefit Burden: Connecticut’s electricity bills are notoriously bloated by legislative mandates. The "Public Benefits" charge line item funds everything from low-income assistance programs to the highly controversial bailout/subsidy of the Millstone Nuclear Power Plant. Because these are volumetric charges (cents per kWh consumed), commercial and industrial facilities bear the overwhelming mathematical burden of these state policy decisions.
- →Standard Service Winter Spikes: Like Massachusetts, Connecticut utilities procure power for their default "Standard Service" in rigid, regulatory-approved blocks. For the winter period (Jan-June), these blocks absorb the absolute peak pricing of ISO-NE generation risk (LNG dependency). Remaining on utility supply removes all budget certainty for a facility director.
- →PURA Ratemaking Combat: The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) has adopted an increasingly adversarial stance toward Eversource capital recovery and rate cases. While this temporarily throttles baseline utility profit margins, the deferred costs and subsequent legal challenges guarantee structural volatility in the delivery side of commercial bills extending well into the late 2020s.
Strategic Mitigation Tactics
With non-bypassable surcharges dominating the bill, procurement professionals in Connecticut must focus relentlessly on the specific line items they can control: Generation Supply and Peak Capacity.
- Competitive Procurement (Generation): Connecticut boasts a vibrant deregulated retail market. Facilities must aggregate their load and bid it out to Tier 1 wholesale suppliers. Executing a 24- or 36-month fixed hedge during the spring shoulder months provides critical budgetary lockdown against the inevitable ISO-NE winter panic.
- ICAP Peak Shaving (Capacity): As part of the ISO-NE control area, a Connecticut facility's capacity charge is dictated by its usage during the grid's single highest peak hour of the year. Installing building automation systems that automatically curtail HVAC chillers during summer grid-alerts physically lowers the facility's subsequent capacity tag, stripping tens of thousands of dollars off future Eversource bills.
- On-Site Solar & Storage (Microgrids): Given the massive volumetric delivery surcharges, Connecticut is one of the most economically viable states for Behind-The-Meter (BTM) generation. Large manufacturing floors and warehouse logistics hubs installing rooftop solar paired with Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) can entirely offset expensive grid electrons while simultaneously using the battery to execute the ICAP peak shaving mentioned above.
The NRES Program
Commercial property owners should aggressively evaluate the Non-Residential Renewable Energy Solutions (NRES) program. PURA redesigned the commercial solar incentive structure to offer predictable 20-year fixed-price revenue streams for system owners (either as Buy-All/Sell-All or Netting tariffs), replacing the legacy ZREC market and improving the project finance modeling for massive roof deployments.