New England utilities — including Eversource, National Grid and Avangrid subsidiaries — and state ratepayer advocates are at odds over a challenge to the way the region reviews and builds transmission projects to replace or upgrade existing infrastructure, called “asset condition” projects, according to Wednesday filings at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The filings are in response to a challenge by the Maine Office of Public Advocate, or OPA, which contends the projects receive little scrutiny before they are added into customer rates and that the utilities aren’t following their formula rate protocols.
