CL&P Seeks Rate Increase

BERLIN (AP) — Connecticut Light & Power, which serves 80 percent of the state’s electricity customers, is seeking a 21.5 percent rate increase.

The request, which was filed on Friday with the state Department of Public Utility Control, is due mostly to rising fuel costs in contracts between CL&P and its suppliers.

State regulators are expected to consider CL&P’s request this month. If the increase is approved, it will take effect in January and appear on customers’ bills in February.

A CL&P residential customer using 700 kilowatts a month would pay $124, up from $102.

Mitchell Gross, a spokesman for CL&P, said the Berlin-based utility has had contracts in place for about half of what is needed to serve customers in 2006, cushioning the impact of the proposed rate increases. The higher rates proposed to begin in January represent increased prices in supply contracts that were signed November 29, he said.

CL&P, a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities, serves about one million customers.

United Illuminating Company, the state’s other electricity supplier, also is asking the state for permission to raise rates. The utility, which serves customers in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas, is seeking an 8.5 percent increase over four years.