Exhibit 99.1
CL&P LOGO
P. O. Box 270
Hartford, CT 06141-0270
107 Selden Street
Berlin, CT 06037
(860)-665-5000
www.cl-p.com
News Release
CONTACT: Al Lara, media inquiries Jeff Kotkin, financial inquiries
Office: (860) 665-5527 (860) 665-5154
After Hours: (800) 286-2000
CL&P to request FERC review of Standard Market Design Costs
BERLIN, Connecticut, May 2, 2003 - In compliance with an order
issued late Thursday by Connecticut utility regulators, The Connecticut
Light and Power Company (CL&P) will begin to recover locational
marginal pricing costs from its Connecticut electric customers and
request that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) conduct an
expedited review of certain obligations under CL&P's power supply
contracts. Because these are wholesale power contracts, FERC is the
appropriate forum for the review.
CL&P, the largest operating subsidiary of Northeast Utilities
(NU), said it expects to file its response to the decision with the
Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control (DPUC) early next
week. CL&P further said it will ask FERC for a declaratory judgment to
determine whether CL&P's three standard offer service suppliers are
responsible for new costs related to the implementation of Standard
Market Design (SMD) in New England on March 1, 2003. CL&P's share of
those costs amounted to $15.5 million in March 2003 and CL&P expects
the costs to remain significant throughout 2003.
In an April 22, 2003 filing with the DPUC, CL&P said it believes
that locational marginal pricing costs related to SMD were its
responsibility under the four-year full-requirements standard offer
service contracts with its suppliers. Nearly all of CL&P's 1.15
million electric customers receive their electricity through those
contracts. Those supply contracts were signed in 1999 and covered the
years 2000-2003. CL&P requested that approximately 60 percent of the
March costs be recovered from customers in May through an increase in
CL&P's Energy Adjustment Clause (EAC) and that approximately 40 percent
be recovered through CL&P's existing Generation Services Charge. In
the decision issued Thursday in DPUC Docket 03-04-07, the Commission
said that CL&P could collect the entire amount on a 60-day interim
basis from an increase in the EAC after the company posts a surety bond
with the DPUC. In its order, the DPUC "strongly recommends to the
Company that it vigorously pursue its legal remedies in the appropriate
judicial and administrative forums." The DPUC also denied the
Connecticut Attorney General's petition for a declaratory ruling that
the suppliers were responsible for the additional costs.
In compliance with the DPUC order, CL&P said it expects to file
for a declaratory judgment with FERC later this month. Because CL&P's
largest supplier, Select Energy, Inc., is also an NU subsidiary, CL&P
and Select Energy will be separately represented before FERC.
NU is New England's largest electric utility system with
approximately 2 million electric and natural gas customers in
Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and is one of the region's
largest provider of competitive energy services.
Northeast Utilities (NYSE: NU) is a Fortune 500 diversified energy
company located in Connecticut with operations throughout the
Northeast. Through its competitive and regulated subsidiaries, NU
provides Energy for a Changing World, with a full range of energy
products and services to millions of residential and business customers
from Maine to Maryland. From delivering electricity and natural gas,
to marketing energy commodities, to operating and maintaining power
plant facilities, NU is committed to safety, reliability and expanding
consumers' energy options. For more information on Northeast Utilities
and its subsidiaries, visit the NU family of Web sites at www.nu.com.