Eversource asks PURA for expedited review to preserve vendor pricing and accelerate AMI deployment; regulators press for more BCA and prudence analysis

Eversource told Connecticut’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority on Monday that it wants permission to file an updated AMI plan and benefit–cost analysis by mid‑July and to receive the agency’s reaction by November 2026 so the company can preserve vendor pricing that it says is time‑limited.

“we're not asking for a pre‑approval here,” said Vincent Pace, lead counsel for Connecticut Light and Power Company (doing business as Eversource Energy), as he outlined three requests tied to PURA’s draft decision rescinding a December 2024 AMI cost‑recovery order. Pace said the company will file an updated scenario‑one business case and BCA in July and submit alternative scenarios in the pending Ray rate case if commissioners do not support the accelerated path.

Why it matters: Eversource said accelerated deployment would let the company extend preferential vendor pricing it negotiated in Massachusetts and deploy AMI more quickly, producing earlier grid and customer benefits. The company laid out three scenarios: scenario one (accelerated, roughly a 5.5‑year horizon to full system benefit), scenario two (re‑solicit RFPs, about 6.5 years) and scenario three (life‑cycle replacements, roughly 10 years). “If you choose not to decide you still have made a choice,” said Doug Horton, Eversource’s senior vice president for regulatory and strategic financial planning, underscoring the company’s argument that delay imposes a cost in foregone benefits.

Regulators and intervenors pressed for more detail and legal clarity. Commissioner Beecher said AMI benefits are contingent and asked whether the company would address stranded costs, financing and benefit assumptions in the updated BCA; Eversource answered that the July filing will include a 20‑year BCA, scenarios for customer adoption and analyses showing how securitization might align cost recovery with benefit realization. Commissioner Cheeseman asked how the company would sequence installations to maximize early system value; Jared Lawrence, Eversource’s senior vice president for customer operations and digital strategy, said meter installs themselves would be completed in about 2.5 years once the program begins and that deployments would be sequenced to strengthen a mesh network quickly.

The Office of Consumer Counsel (OCC) and other intervenors urged caution. “It feels right now like there's no great option,” Consumer Counsel Coleman said, noting the volume of material already in the rate case and the information asymmetry between the company and stakeholders. Coleman and others said cost­recovery topics — including the extent to which costs might be securitized under Senate Bill 4 — are properly resolved in a rate case context, though they did not foreclose a targeted separate proceeding or an uncontested docket to evaluate deployment timing and the updated BCA.

Procedural options discussed included: (1) permitting Eversource to file updates in the current AMI docket and issuing a PURA reaction this year; (2) incorporating an accelerated‑deployment mini‑case into the pending Ray rate case with an accelerated schedule and interim decision; or (3) opening a new, standalone docket (potentially uncontested) to consider acceleration and BCA questions while leaving final cost‑recovery outcomes to the rate case. Eversource said it prefers a separate proceeding or the current docket so it can secure a November reaction without delaying the company’s window to preserve vendor pricing.

What remains unresolved: Commissioners repeatedly returned to prudence and risk allocation. OCC and consumer representatives warned that changing usual used‑and‑useful recovery norms or securitizing costs shifts risk and requires clear policy justification; Eversource said it is not seeking a blank check and expects cost‑recovery frameworks to be decided in the rate case. Several commissioners expressed interest in a fuller record — including updated BCAs, deployment sequencing, and clarifications on which costs Eversource believes could be securitized — before agreeing to an accelerated path.

Next steps: Vice Chairman Dave Aranti said the authority would consider the full written record and today’s arguments and render a final decision tentatively scheduled for July 1. Eversource has said it will file its updated AMI plan and BCA in mid‑July.