PURA approves revised 2025–26 revenue requirement for United Illuminating, removes some ROE reductions
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Summary
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority approved a $452.845 million annual revenue requirement for United Illuminating for Nov. 1, 2025–Oct. 31, 2026, removed two limited return-on-equity reductions raised on reconsideration and maintained prior disallowances of certain operations-and-maintenance costs.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on March 3 approved a revised annual revenue requirement of $452,845,438 for the United Illuminating Company for the rate year Nov. 1, 2025, through Oct. 31, 2026.
Authority staff attorney Jim Riley told the panel that the authority originally set a $450,789,348 requirement on Oct. 28, 2025, and that the company filed a petition for reconsideration on Nov. 12, 2025 seeking review of several adjustments in the prior decision. "In this decision, the authority approves an annual revenue requirement of $452,845,438 for the rate year 11/01/2025 through 10/31/2026," Riley said.
The panel’s reconsideration decision removed a 10-basis-point ROE reduction tied to remediation at Inglis/English Station and removed a 5-basis-point ROE reduction that had been associated with alleged noncompliance with directives related to a centralized distributed energy resource management platform and a water-heater rental program. The authority, however, maintained earlier disallowances of certain proposed operations-and-maintenance expenses, including the company’s proposed inflation adjustments for some O&M expenses, 75% of proposed board-of-directors expenses and 50% of proposed independent audit expenses.
Riley emphasized the statutory standard that guides the agency: the authority "must set just and reasonable rates" and therefore examines a company's approved revenue requirement holistically, rather than considering only selected components.
The panel adopted the staff-recommended decision in a motion moved by a commissioner (speaker S3) and seconded by Janelle Mcgregory, an authority staff attorney. Chairman Tom Wheel recused himself and abstained because he had participated in the matter in a prior role; another commissioner (speaker S5) also announced an abstention citing the record established before joining PURA. Vice Chairman David Arcanti, Commissioner Jan Beecher and Commissioner Holly Cheeseman voted to adopt the decision.
The decision resolves the reconsideration petition filed by United Illuminating and implements the revised revenue requirement and the staff-recommended adjustments described above. The authority did not revise the disallowances of the O&M items noted in its original decision.