State must approve three-year agreement
Central Hudson on Tuesday (May 13) announced a three-year agreement with the state and other parties that would raise electricity and gas delivery rates for most customers.
If the plan is approved by the state Public Service Commission, a typical Central Hudson customer will pay $5.43 (5.09 percent) more per month for electricity delivery during the first year, beginning July 1, and $6.25 and $6.62 more for the subsequent two years. Lower-income customers enrolled in an energy-assistance program would see decreases of $3.85 (4.2 percent) per month. The delivery charge for gas would increase by $7.73 (6.6 percent) per month during the first year and $11.27 and $12.37 in subsequent years.
After applying $44 million in bill credits, Central Hudson would collect $144 million in new revenue over the three years, according to a summary of the proposal. The company said it would spend that revenue on infrastructure, higher labor costs and bonuses, energy-efficiency and heat-pump programs and a 9.5 percent return on shareholder equity.
Central Hudson also agreed to provide customer bills in Spanish, continue outreach to households about energy assistance and award up to $200,000 in grants for workforce training in green-energy fields.
The 52 representatives for businesses, nonprofits, municipalities and public officials who joined the rate case as parties have until May 23 to file statements of support or opposition to the agreement, whose signatories include the state Department of Public Service. The PSC also scheduled an evidentiary hearing beginning on June 16. Public comments on the rate proposal can be submitted online to the PSC.
“At Central Hudson, we understand the financial challenges that rising bills place on our customers, and we are committed to easing this burden by implementing a rate plan that balances essential system investments with the need to keep costs as low as possible,” said Steph Raymond, the utility’s president and CEO.
Those costs, however, have been rising for Central Hudson’s 315,000 electric and 90,000 gas customers. The most recent rate increase, approved by the PSC in July 2024, was for a one-year hike of $12.65 per month for the average electric bill and $12.25 for gas.
The following month, Central Hudson submitted a request for another one-year increase to electric and gas delivery rates of $9 a month. The agreement announced on Tuesday replaces that request.
Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson, a Democrat whose district includes Beacon, issued his verdict on Wednesday (May 14), urging the PSC to reject the proposed agreement. He said the return on equity is “good for shareholders of Fortis [Central Hudson’s parent company] but not for its customers,” who include 6,853 households in Beacon, 3,646 in Philipstown, 1,270 in Cold Spring and 326 in Nelsonville.
Why don’t we have a utility that is owned by the public? Take the profit motive away from Canadian owned Fortis, who do so on the backs of hard working families; buy Central Hudson and create a public utility that is owned by all of us. There is already a movement afoot to do just that. The Hudson Valley Power Authority is the proposed name being offered up by lawmakers. Give power back to the people.
I find it concerning that The Current put a story about yet another Central Hudson rate hike on the inside of the paper, rather than the front page, especially at a time of heightened anxiety over inflation and the economy. Your occasional coverage of Central Hudson more broadly has been fine, but rate-hike coverage never seems to go much beyond press releases from Central Hudson and politicians.
We need fuller, more sustained coverage so that readers can better understand these hikes and have ways to make our voices heard. The May 16 story said the deadline for statements on the hikes is May 23, but there was no information about how or where to make statements.
I would like to see follow-up stories on why a company that still can’t produce a consistently functional online bill-pay system has its hand out every time I turn around? Both state Sen. Rob Rolison (a Republican) and Assembly Member Jonathan Jacobson (a Democrat) are on record opposing these increases. Maybe interview the two of them? How about a story about assistance to lower-income customers, whose rates will go down while others go up? Does the program work as intended?
These hikes affect everyone in your circulation era, and people, as ever, are highly disillusioned with the news media, politicians and corporations. I’m a longtime reader and fan of what you all do at The Current, but we need better and more coverage on rate hikes.
We’ve added a link to the story to the comment form.