InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/power-to-the-people/page/11)
D. Maurice KreisPower to the People is a new column by D. Maurice Kreis, New Hampshire’s Consumer Advocate. Kreis and his staff of four represent the interests of residential utility customers before the NH Public Utilities Commission and elsewhere.
With a global pandemic threatening to kill millions of people, and with the world’s economy having just sailed off a cliff with no bottom in sight, you might be looking for sources of inspiration here in New Hampshire. I have one.
We interrupt the endless argument about net metering in New Hampshire to bring you an important public service announcement. Energy efficiency is in trouble.
Regular readers of this column will recall that I am no fan of Merrimack Station, particularly because Eversource customers are paying off $400 million in costs resulting from the 2008 decision to build a mercury scrubber there instead of shutting the plant down.
Eversource wants to increase its annual revenues in New Hampshire by almost $70 million. That amounts to a rate hike of nearly 20 percent.
What would you pay to keep your baby alive and thriving into adulthood?
We urge the PUC to disallow Eversource’s $42 million dollar investment in new meters, made in 2013.
Yes, New Hampshire has moved up one notch since the release 2018 ACEEE scorecard. But New Hampshire remains dead last in New England.
With the exception of Liberty itself and the labor union representing its employees, every single party to the case that filed testimony, including the Staff of the PUC, has now declared its opposition to the plan to spend more than $400 million and build these new assets.
Every so often, even amid the damp grey fog of utility regulation, a blinding flash of insight strikes.