Eversource Rate Increases: What's Driving Them and What's Next

Connecticut has some of the highest electricity rates in the continental United States, and they haven't been standing still. If it feels like your Eversource bill goes up every year — that's because, on average, it does.

What happened in January 2026?

On January 1, 2026, the Eversource Standard Service supply rate rose from about 9.7¢ to about 12.6¢ per kilowatt-hour — an increase of roughly 29% on the supply portion of the bill. For an average home using 700 kWh a month, that's about $20 more per month, before any change in the delivery charges.

This wasn't a one-off. The supply rate resets every January 1 and July 1 based on power auctions, and New England winters reliably push it up because the region's power plants compete with home heating for natural gas.

Why do Connecticut rates keep rising?

A few structural reasons, none of which are going away soon:

1. The fuel mix. Connecticut generates most of its electricity from natural gas. When gas prices move, your supply rate moves — and winter pipeline constraints in New England amplify every move.

2. The grid needs work. Poles, wires, substations, and storm hardening are all paid for through delivery charges, which regulators approve separately from supply. That infrastructure spending is rising across the country.

3. State policy costs ride on the bill. Programs like the Millstone power contract and pandemic-era bill forgiveness get collected through the Public Benefits charge — which spiked memorably in 2024 before lawmakers refinanced part of it in 2025.

4. Utilities are monopolies with captive customers. You never chose Eversource — your town's location did. There's no competitor to switch to for delivery, so there's no market pressure holding delivery rates down; only the regulatory process does that.

How fast are rates actually rising?

Zoom out from any single reset and the pattern is steady: Connecticut residential electric rates have historically climbed in the neighborhood of 4–5% per year on average, with individual years swinging much harder (the January 2026 supply reset being a fresh example).

Compounding does the quiet damage. At 4.5% per year, a $200 monthly bill becomes roughly $310 in ten years and $480 in twenty — more than $80,000 paid to the utility over 25 years, assuming they never raise rates faster.

What can homeowners actually do?

Realistically, you have three levers:

1. Use less — efficiency upgrades help, but they can't outrun compounding rate increases forever.
2. Shop suppliers — third-party suppliers only compete on the supply half of your bill, and the delivery half keeps rising regardless.
3. Produce your own power — rooftop solar replaces grid kilowatt-hours entirely, which sidesteps the supply rate and the usage-based delivery charges, and locks your electricity cost at a fixed rate for decades. Connecticut's Residential Renewable Energy Solutions program guarantees the terms for 20 years.

Whether the third lever makes sense depends on your roof, your bill, and your plans — we walk through the honest version of that math in Is Solar Worth It in Connecticut?

Or start at the beginning: our 3-minute explainer shows exactly what your bill charges you for and how solar changes it. No pressure, no jargon.

The bottom line

• Supply rates reset twice a year; January 2026 brought a ~29% supply increase
• Delivery charges and state program costs rise on their own separate track
• Long-run average increases of ~4–5% per year compound into six figures over a solar system's lifetime
• The only lever that fixes your rate — instead of just trimming it — is producing your own power