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NH PUC Directs PSNH To File Proposal To Serve At Least 30% Of Mass Market SOS Load Under ISO Market Purchases
In its order the PUC directed that PSNH file a proposal to procure more default service supplies directly through the ISO New England market.
“With Community Aggregation accelerating, the decline in ES sales for the Large Customer Group, resulting under-collections, and the wide ongoing pricing differential between requirements contract prices and ISO-New England prevailing market prices, as evidenced by Eversource’s ongoing monthly reporting, the Commission believes it is appropriate to expand the market-based procurement program for the Company.”
For the February-July 2025 default service period, the PUC directed that PSNH file a proposal for Small Customer Group ES supplies that would include, “an ISO-New England market-based procurement tranche of at least 30 percent, with no upper bound[.]”
Currently, ISO-NE market purchases are used for 12.5% of Small Customer default service.
The PUC directed that PSNH file a proposal to serve Large Customer default service through 100% ISO-NE market purchases.
In its order the New Hampshire PUC also concluded that recovering default energy service (ES) reconciliation amounts through the nonbypassable Stranded Cost Recovery Charge (SCRC) could be an “equitable” and “reasonable” approach, due to the “backstop” nature of default energy service.
The Commission pointed to a large prior-period under-collection balance of $6.5 million in default service costs for the large customer group at Public Service of New Hampshire (Eversource).
As a result, the PUC directed PSNH to prepare a proposal to integrate the ES Reconciliation Adjustment Factor charges (default service reconciliation) into the SCRC. Such proposal would be subject to future PUC review prior to implementation.
The PUC rejected allocating this Large Customer Group default service under-collection balance to the small customer group, with the PUC stating that, “consolidation of the reconciliation charges between the Large and Small Customer Groups as an expedient would be unjust and unreasonable cross-subsidization and cost-shifting[.]”
Subsequentially on July 3, 2024, “Public Service Company of New Hampshire d/b/a Eversource Energy (“Eversource” or the “Company”) filed the Technical Statement in compliance with the Commission’s Order Approving Solicitations, and Requesting Re-Filing of Energy Service Rates by July 10, 2024, Order No. 27,022 (June 20, 2024) (the “Order”). The Order directed the Company to: (1) place the $6.5 million under-collection for the Large Customer Group into a deferral account, with Tariff-specified carrying charges to be assessed; (2) adjust its proxy price calculations for the 12.5% market-based procurement tranche for the Small Customer Group using the latest available information on actual costs instead of using the multiplier based approach; (3) provide a recalculation of the Energy Service Tariff rate elements and expected Energy Service bill impacts based upon the under-collection deferral and modified proxy price calculation, to be filed no later than July 10; and (4) provide a calculation of the estimated carrying charges associated with the $6.5 million deferral for the next calendar year as part of the July 10 filing.”
Technical Statement – Parker Littlehale, Luann Lamontagne, Yi- (07/03/2024)
Order No. 27,022 Approving Solicitations, and Requesting Re-Filing of Energy Service Rates by July 10, 2024 (06/20/2024)
Petition for Adjustment to Energy Service Rate for Effect on August 1, 2024, Testimony with Attachments (06/18/2024)
DE 24-046 (03/19/2024)
Public Service Company of New Hampshire d/b/a Eversource Energy – 2024 Energy Service Solicitations
