PURTA closes joint-petition docket from Eversource and ALCO affiliates, finds lack of jurisdiction

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on April 30 adopted staff’s recommendation to close a petition filed jointly by Connecticut Light and Power Company doing business as Eversource Energy and several ALCO affiliates seeking a declaratory ruling endorsing a private settlement.

Authority staff attorney Russ Bowman told commissioners that the petition, filed March 7, 2025, asked the Authority to endorse a seven-page settlement resolving private contract disputes between Eversource and the ALCO entities. Bowman said the petition did not present “a cognizable request for a declaratory ruling” because it did not specify the particular statutory language or an actual, specified circumstance to which a declaratory ruling would apply. He explained that agencies may issue declaratory rulings under Connecticut General Statutes §4-176 when asked to construe and apply specific statutory language to identified circumstances; the petition before the Authority did not meet that standard.

Bowman said petitioners listed a string of statutes that generally authorize energy programs in which they had participated and then asked the Authority to endorse the settlement in its entirety, including conditions and options that the parties had not finalized. Given those deficiencies, staff recommended closing the docket without further action and memorialized those reasons in a docket-closing memorandum.

A motion to adopt the docket-closing memorandum was moved and seconded (mover/second not specified in the transcript). The Authority adopted the recommendation by roll call; the transcript records affirmative votes from Commissioner Cara (as named in the roll call), Commissioner Arconti and Chairman Marissa Gillette.

The closure means the Authority took no action to approve or endorse the settlement agreement; the transcript does not record further direction to staff or additional filings required.