Experts: Consumers are paying more for power in competitive supplier market

HARTFORD, Conn. – Connecticut residents who purchase their electricity from competitive suppliers pay more than their counterparts who purchase their electricity from Connecticut Light & Power or United Illuminating. That’s according to the findings of two experts hired by the Office of Consumer Counsel.

Susan Baldwin, an independent consultant, and Helen Golding, former general counsel at the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities, studied the rates being offered in Connecticut and shared their findings with state regulators this week.

They found in CL&P’s territory that about 13 percent of residents using competitive supplies are paying less than the “standard offer,” about six customers — not 6 percent — are paying the same amount, and 87 percent are paying more than the standard offer.

In UI’s territory, about 30 percent paid less and 70 percent paid more than the standard offer.

“The fact that the vast majority of Suppliers’ residential customers throughout the state pay more than if they purchased the Standard Offer suggests that the market is not functioning properly as it is presently structured and regulated,” Baldwin and Golding concluded.

See the complete story at CT News Junkie.