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CT Supreme Court Denies Clearview’s Appeal to Pay $178,832 for Utility’s Residential Bill Redesign Costs
On April 14, 2026 in the case of Clearview Electric, Inc. v. Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (Docket No. SC21121) Justice Bright wrote a unanimous ruling affirming the trial court’s judgment dismissing Clearview’s administrative appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
The Connecticut Supreme Court denied Clearview Electric’s appeal from the Connecticut Public Utilities Authority (PURA) ordering Clearview to pay $178,832 in an electric distribution residential billing-redesign cost.
The Court held that PURA’s denial of the motion to withdraw the license was not a final decision in a contested case, because no statute or regulation required PURA to determine Clearview’s withdrawal request after an opportunity for a hearing.
The dispute arose after PURA ordered Clearview to pay $178,832 in residential billing-redesign costs. Clearview sought to withdraw its license to avoid the assessment, which PURA denied “without prejudice” until payment was made.
The Court rejected Clearview’s argument that this cost allocation was a “penalty” requiring a formal hearing under General Statutes § 16-41.
As reported previously, on July 26, 2023 PURA issued a decision whereby PURA “examines the electric distribution companies’ (EDC) costs associated with billing system changes ordered in the December 19, 2018 Decision in Docket No. 14-07-19RE05.
“The decision identifies the amount of such costs each third-party electric supplier must pay, identifies each third-party electric supplier meeting the payment criteria, determines the mechanism the EDCs may use for cost recovery, and addresses the EDCs’ recourse for uncollectible third-party electric suppliers. The Authority finds that the EDCs’ Final Project Costs are prudent and that dividing the Final Project Costs into two portions, whereby one portion is a fixed fee allocated to all third-party electric suppliers who currently have a license to serve residential customers and the second portion is allocated to third-party electric suppliers based upon each electric supplier’s average residential customer count for the three calendar years following the issuance of the Implementation Decision, specifically 2019, 2020, and 2021, balances the interests of the third-party electric suppliers equitably and feasibly. The list of the third-party electric suppliers that meet the payment criteria and the costs allocated to each electric supplier are provided in Appendix C.”
