(WFSB) – Hundreds of viewers emailed the I-Team asking us to look into rising electric bills.

Almost every email we received contained questions about public benefit fees.

This rate has been around for years, but people are taking notice now because they’re paying nearly 5 times more per kilowatt hour than they were a few months ago.

The I-Team set up a microphone in Hartford to ask people about their electric bills. Here are some of the answers:

“Well, it’s too expensive.”

“The bill is high.”

“I really didn’t use any more energy than the month before and it was more than double.”

“It was almost a 100% increase, so it’s crazy. It’s crazy.

It is normal for electricity bills to increase in July as people use more electricity to run air conditioners, but in July there is another reason why bills increased. The amount charged to Eversource customers per kilowatt hour for the public benefits portion of the bill increased by 490%. This means that for the average customer, Eversource estimates that the share of public benefits has increased from $12 per month to $59 per month.

Steve Sullivan, president of Eversource in Connecticut, explains: “All we’re doing in this part is exactly recovering our costs. »

When lawmakers set up programs that require Eversource to spend money, by law, customers must reimburse Eversource for those programs through public benefits. Eversource claims it has been underpaid for years.

One reason is what happened during the pandemic, when lawmakers said Eversource couldn’t cut off a customer’s power. In four years, past due balances have nearly tripled, from $101 million to $274 million.

“They just built and built and built until we finally forced the issue and said you have to pay these amounts,” Sullivan said.

The I-Team wanted to know if other states required customers to pay each other’s bills. So we contacted the electricity regulatory agencies in all 50 states. Of the 23 states that responded by our deadline, the majority said they have something similar to Connecticut’s. Eight states do not have a mechanism for taxpayers to pay other customers’ overdue bills. For example, in Kansas, these types of fees have been deemed unfair and discriminatory. In West Virginia, instead of asking customers to foot the bill, utilities get a tax credit to make up the difference. In Florida, financial assistance programs are funded by nonprofit organizations or social service agencies.

Pandemic-related backlogs are what many people wanted to talk about when they took our microphone.

“I think it’s unfair that we have to pay for other people who haven’t been able to pay during covid,” said Edyda Cooney of West Hartford.

“If someone doesn’t pay their electricity bill, why should I pay it for them? » said Steven from Torrington.

Eversource reports that unpaid bills account for about 20% of the public benefit rate increase. Eversource says nearly 70 percent of the increase goes to pay for a state contract with the Millstone nuclear power plant. In 2019, state Republicans led an effort to purchase electricity from the plant to ensure it remained open. The contract requires Eversource to purchase power from Millstone at a rate currently above market price. Customers must then make up the difference by paying for public services.

State Sen. Ryan Fazio is the ranking Republican on the Energy Committee and supports the Millstone decision.

“I think the most serious energy analysts on both sides of the aisle understand that nuclear power plants like Millstone, which are carbon-free, reliable and the lowest-cost form of carbon-free energy, must stay online as we We are seeing a growing demand for electricity,” Fazio said. .

Sen. Norm Needleman, a Democrat, is the co-chair of the Energy Committee. A spokesperson told us he was not available to discuss this topic with us, so we met with the House co-speaker, also a Democrat, Rep. Jonathan Steinberg.

Steinberg voted for the Millstone contract.

“If we had let Millstone close, we would be in a much worse situation today, and we would be talking about a different kind of crisis: Could you be sure that your lights would come on when you flipped the switch?” Steinberg said.

The current public benefit increase continues through May, and if all state programs remain as is, Sullivan predicts the fees on your bill will go down.

“Before July first, the rate was artificially low, but as we’re paying off that past balance, it’s currently artificially high and it’s probably going to be somewhere in between,” Sullivan said.

However, all of that could change depending on what happens during this legislative session.

State Republicans have proposed moving many programs currently funded by public entitlements to the regular budget process. The money would then come from the general fund and be paid with taxpayer dollars.

“We should not be raising electricity costs when they are already so high in the state in order to fund these government programs,” Fazio said.

Steinberg does not support this idea.

“You can decide where you’d rather pay for it, but if you believe in something that’s worth it, does it really matter? » said Steinberg

Steinberg says Connecticut needs to spend more money, not less, to invest in renewable energy like solar and wind.

“This is really an imperative for Connecticut if we want to remain economically competitive and if we want to maintain our quality of life,” Steinberg said.

Although it’s often said that you should turn off your lights to reduce your electric bill, what you end up paying each month will also depend on who controls the lights in Hartford.

Social security contributions increased again from September. Eversource estimates that the average customer pays about $3 more per month to qualify for an electric vehicle charger discount program. The I-Team takes a closer look at this program in the second part of the series broadcast on Thursday, November 7.

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