Energy affordability is appropriately a priority across New Hampshire and New England, and as a regulated utility, we embrace our important responsibility at Eversource to provide the safe, reliable service our customers need while keeping the costs we have some control over as low as possible. We also take seriously our commitment to transparency and helping our customers better understand everything that makes up their utility bill.
The largest, most volatile component of electric bills in New Hampshire is energy supply — or the cost of electricity from power generators — which will represent nearly half of our customers’ total bills when the biannual energy service rate adjustment occurs on August 1. With continued dialogue about alternative supply options offered by organizations like the Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire, there is understandably attention on this upcoming rate adjustment — but some inaccuracies and misleading statements should be corrected, including those in a recent “My Turn” submission here in the Concord Monitor.
First and foremost, whomever our customers choose to receive their energy supply from, there is no financial or operational impact for Eversource or any other utility in New Hampshire — nor any incentive for utilities to try to prevent customers from choosing an alternative supplier. Simply put, it’s not a competition for utilities, and Eversource always encourages customers to evaluate all available options and make the best choice for them. The fact that our customers in New Hampshire have more options than ever for their energy supply is a positive thing, and Eversource will always deliver that power safely and reliably.
Since the deregulation of the utility industry in New Hampshire with the Electric Restructuring Act, distribution companies like Eversource no longer own generation but must offer energy supply as an option of last resort to ensure universal service is available for all customers. We simply purchase the power our customers use — with no markup or profit to the company — from suppliers on the ISO-NE regional wholesale market through a highly transparent procurement process. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has explicit authority to set the terms of this process, from which Eversource cannot deviate whatsoever, and this cost is governed by those regulatory mandates and driven by market forces.
Following adjustments to that process in recent years by the PUC with a goal of reducing costs, utilities are now required to purchase half of the power for our energy service offering directly from the day-ahead spot market. Because we cannot change the supply rate daily, the PUC sets a fixed rate every six months and established a formula for setting that estimated rate. The actual cost of those spot-market purchases will never align exactly with the estimate, so the difference is reconciled annually in the utilities’ energy service rate. The PUC set our energy service rates for Feb. 1 to July 31 of this year in December 2025, and multiple impactful and relatively unpredictable events followed — including a global conflict in Iran and one of the coldest winters New England saw in a decade-plus — driving up the cost of energy on the day-ahead market.
Let us be clear: It is blatantly false to suggest we have kept these rates artificially low, and this entire process is governed by a direct regulatory mandate that Eversource does not have the option to disregard or modify. References to “under-collections” and “charging interest” by some stakeholders to that end are unproductively misleading and importantly fail to mention that those dollars are already included in the supply rate increase that takes place on Aug. 1 (at 14.0 cents per kWh including those costs, this will remain lower than many other suppliers’ rates).
It is also important to note that this process works both ways, and if the supply rate is set higher than the actual market costs, utility energy service customers will receive credit including interest for those costs. Remember, energy supply is not a competitive business for Eversource, and we don’t believe in misleading customers about this process nor maligning other suppliers — we simply want our customers to exercise their right to choose.
Energy rates can be an esoteric topic and utilities like Eversource make for easy political scapegoats, but perpetuating inaccuracies does not serve the public interest nor help solve the pressing energy issues facing our state and region. It unnecessarily angers people and entrenches them in an “us versus them” mentality, when we should all be working together to best serve all customers. Through that noise, we will continue to bring a customer-first focus on affordability, reliability, safety and transparency while working with partners across the state to achieve energy solutions that can make a difference.
William Hinkle, of Greenland, is the Director of External Communications at Eversource.