The Fight for Fair Energy Markets Isn’t Over

CPCNH continues legislative and regulatory efforts to prevent unfair utility cost shifting and protect market competition.

The Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire is continuing its fight to protect ratepayer fairness and preserve a competitive electricity market. Over the past several months, CPCNH has been advocating for House Bill (HB) 760, legislation aimed at preventing monopoly utilities from shifting their supply cost overruns onto customers served by third-party suppliers such as CPCNH.

While the bill stalled in House committee earlier this month, it was ultimately tabled on the House floor on March 26, providing an opportunity for revival later in the session. In the meantime, CPCNH’s advocacy continues to advance on multiple fronts.

The stakes for New Hampshire

HB 760 would clarify that any under- or over-collections resulting from utility default service must be recovered through future utility default service rates within one year’s timeframe. Without the bill and because of encouragement by regulators, utilities could be allowed to socialize their supply cost overruns to all distribution customers on a non-bypassable basis.

“This kind of cost shifting is anti-competitive and deeply unfair to consumers who have elected to purchase supply from a third-party provider,” said Deana Dennis, CPCNH’s director of regulatory and legislative affairs.

The likelihood for cost overruns with utility default service increases as regulators have directed utilities to buy increasing amounts of electricity on the spot market. When prices spike, utilities pay more than they planned which causes a discrepancy between the rates that they set and the revenues that they collect from customers.

On the flip side, when prices drop, utilities may over-collect revenue compared to the rates that were set instead of absorbing those costs or surpluses by passing them only to their own default service customers. At least two of the investor-owned utilities so far – Eversource and Unitil – have proposed to recover them through additional charges added to everyone’s electric bills. These charges, sometimes called “stranded cost charges,” are bundled into the electric distribution side of the bill that no customer can opt out of.

“This kind of cost shifting is anti-competitive and deeply unfair to consumers who have elected to purchase supply from a third-party provider,” said Deana Dennis, CPCNH’s director of regulatory and legislative affairs. “No competitive supplier is allowed to pass their losses onto to all customers—and the monopoly utility shouldn’t be able to either.

Dennis added, “HB 760 was designed to protect consumers and uphold the basic principles of customer choice and market fairness.”

Jim Garrity, a CPCNH board member, longtime public advocate, and member of the Town of Atkinson’s Energy Committee, echoed this message in a recent op-ed. Garrity previously served in the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 2004 to 2012, including as chair of the Science, Technology and Energy Committee.

“Allowing utilities to shift their own default service cost overruns onto customers of their competitors is unfair, anti-competitive, and deeply harmful to the public interest,” Garrity wrote in NH Journal. “If enacted, HB 760 would restore the rules of the road to protect customers and support a level playing field for all market participants.”

What’s next: doubling down on public advocacy

In response, CPCNH is intensifying its engagement at the PUC while also exploring opportunities to revive and advance HB 760 before the end of session. The Coalition’s broader NH Energy Forward Act legislative platform includes bills that seek to level the playing field between utilities and competitive suppliers, enable local energy innovation, and strengthen the enforcement of market rules.

Similarly to HB 760, those bills which include HB 755, HB 759, and HB 761 were also tabled on the House floor, which gives them a chance to be revived before the end of session as well as a chance for the subject matter to be considered again during next year’s sessions if the bills die “on the table” before the end of this session.

“We met with Rep. [Michael] Vose, Chairman of the House Science, Technology & Energy Committee earlier this week and he expressed a desire to work with CPCNH and other stakeholders over the summer to make progress on the proposals contained in the NH Energy Forward Act so that new bill language can be brought forward next year,” Dennis said.

“We appreciate Chairman Vose’s leadership and willingness to engage stakeholders in working through some of the more complex market issues that these bills provoke,” she added. “We look forward to engaging in that process to find common-sense solutions that will benefit NH communities and lower costs for all Granite Staters.”

How to Get involved

CPCNH invites all stakeholders to stay engaged and informed:

• Join the next virtual Legislative and Regulatory Policy Update at 2pm. Thursday, April 17, 2pm. Join via Zoom, and visit the CPCNH calendar to learn more.

• Sign up for CPCNH's legislative action alerts

• Explore CPCNH’s Bill Tracker to follow current legislation and learn how you can take action.

CPCNH’s mission is rooted in local control and fair market principles. As of March, the coalition includes more than 70 municipalities and counties, representing over 40 percent of the state’s population. With broad support across the state, CPCNH will continue advocating for policies that promote innovative, affordable, customer and community-driven energy solutions on a competitive basis.