InDepthNH.org (https://indepthnh.org/series/power-to-the-people/page/8)
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.
It turns out that many of you took me seriously when I promised, in the last installment, that I would have some suggestions for what New Hampshire ratepayers could do in the face of looming increases to their electric bills.
You are about to experience what is known in the trade as “rate shock.”
Once upon a time, I was general counsel of the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). As the first line of a fairy tale, that lacks a certain zing. But times are tough, and I promise this story has a moral.
Explaining that the Department of Energy and the PUC are independent agencies that are administratively attached, Deputy Energy Commissioner Christopher J. Ellms Jr. said the relationship was designed to improve efficiency and reduce duplicative efforts.
New Hampshire might be the tenth most expensive state when it comes to energy. Or maybe not.
Bastille Day is nigh, and ratepayers in Maine are storming the gates of the fortress with torches and pitchforks.
Her friendly neighborhood investor-owned water company, Abenaki, is seeking a whopping big rate increase of 427 percent.
If there is a fundamental truth that applies to ratepayer advocacy, it is this: The customer has the only wallet in the room.
Residential ratepayers of New Hampshire, as the person tasked by statute with advancing your interests, I have made a colossal blunder. Please accept my apology, along with the following explanation.
It only took 82 years and it’s only four million bucks – a relatively modest sum for an electric utility that collected $141 million in revenue from its customers last year.