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Connecticut Light & Power Responds That Lowest Cost Option on Average Was Utilizing the Spot Market.  

As previously reported the Connecticut Public Utility Regulatory Authority (PURA) via a discovery request asked the utilities to “[p]rovide data showing the costs and benefits of using the Millstone PPA to serve a portion of standard service load during the last 10 years, including its impacts on all distribution customers via the NBFMCC charge.”

CL&P Response – “Page 3 of the attachment compares various means of administering Standard Service such as utilizing a Full Requirements Service contract with a wholesale supplier, utilizing Millstone’s generation, and purchasing power in the spot market. 

The Company’s analysis shows that 1) There are times when each of the 3 potential options would have yielded both the lowest and the highest costs for customers 2) Over the analyzed period, the lowest cost option on average was utilizing the spot market.

Utilizing the Millstone PPA for Standard Service would not represent a load following energy contract and instead should be viewed as a spot market purchase where if Millstone is generating in a given hour, the price Standard Service customers would pay for that energy from Millstone would not be the spot market price, but instead the PPA price. If Millstone is unavailable, then customers would fully be price takers at an unknown price in the spot market. As stated in prior interrogatories in this docket, utilizing either Millstone or spot purchases transfers cost risks to customers and these manifest through over or under rate recoveries. While not shown in the values on page 3 of the attachment, but stated in prior interrogatories, the volatility associated with spot market purchases is quite high and those costs significantly decrease the value of spot market purchases over the long run.

12-06-02RE04 (07/09/2025)
(PURA Review Of Power Procurement Plan – Amendment Pursuant To Public Act 25-173)