PURA holds evidentiary hearing as Eversource seeks to securitize $2018–2023 storm costs

The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority convened an evidentiary hearing to take testimony and cross‑examination on docket 251213, Eversource Energy’s application to securitize storm restoration costs dating from 2018 through 2023. Interim Chair Tom Wheel opened the proceeding and asked parties to identify appearances. Eversource’s counsel introduced an 11‑witness panel that was sworn before a company presentation of the record.

Cassandra Dixon, director of regulatory projects and compliance for Eversource, told the authority the company had filed seven substantive submissions and produced an extensive supporting record: “we submitted a total of seven substantive filings … for 53 storm events from 2018 through 2023,” she said, and described 1,700 interrogatory responses and tens of thousands of invoice documents submitted to the record. Dixon walked commissioners through the company’s incident‑management exhibits (IMT2–IMT4) and accounting exhibits covering transactional cost detail, saying the cost exhibits link line items to invoice pages to permit review.

Why it matters: Eversource proposes securitization to recover incremental storm costs outside base rates. If PURA approves securitization, it would allow the utility to convert discrete storm costs into bond‑like obligations whose carrying cost and recovery method differ from traditional rate treatment. The hearing focused on the threshold tests and source documentation regulators will use to decide whether particular expenditures should be securitized.

During cross‑examination, interveners pressed the company for clarity about operational triggers and the accounting path from a pre‑staging activity to a catastrophic storm claim. Eversource witnesses described an operational emergency response level (ERP) that is triggered by forecasts and expected trouble‑spot counts and that leads to mobilizing in‑house rapid response crews, internal line crews and, when needed, out‑of‑state contractor support. The company characterized major storms both operationally and financially — Garrett Murray, director of revenue requirements, told the authority the company applies a financial test in this docket for a “catastrophic” event: the company treats an event with greater than $4 million of incremental costs as meeting the securitization threshold being litigated here.

Next steps: The record will be supplemented with several late‑filed exhibits and read‑ins the parties agreed to provide during the hearing, including supplemental contract language, location‑specific weather extracts and reconciliations for certain disputed invoice classifications. PURA’s deliberations will hinge on whether the submitted invoices and audit evidence substantiate claimed incremental costs and whether the proposed securitization mechanism is consistent with statute and prior decisions.

Eversource and interveners expected to return with those late files and continue evidentiary exchange; the hearing recessed for a short break after parties recorded numerous follow‑up document requests.