Hartford Electricity Costs Are Going Up — Here's Why

The numbers

Eversource customers in Connecticut currently pay around $0.240/kWh on average. At the historical escalation rate of about 6.0% a year, that rate compounds quickly if it holds:

Projection based on Connecticut's historical rate escalation of 6.0%/yr, compounded annually. Not a guarantee — actual future rates depend on regulatory decisions.

That's a 221% increase over 20 years if the trend continues — meaning the same household usage that costs $240 today per 1,000 kWh would cost roughly $770 at that point.

What's actually driving the increase

Connecticut has ranked among the handful of most expensive states nationally for residential electric rates for years, driven by transmission and distribution charges, public benefits surcharges, and the cost of importing power into a constrained New England grid. Eversource has filed repeated rate increases tied to grid infrastructure and storm hardening.

How residents are fighting back

You can't vote down a rate case yourself, but you can reduce how much of your bill is exposed to it. Connecticut's HB 5340 (2026 omnibus solar act) now allows a permit-free, no-utility-approval plug-in solar system up to 1200W — effective October 1, 2026. Most plug-in systems this size don't qualify for net metering, so the strategy that actually works is maximizing self-consumption — using the power as you generate it, rather than exporting it back to the grid at a rate that keeps rising anyway.

Bottom line

Hartford rates are going up, and the drivers behind it — among the highest electric rates in the nation — aren't going away soon. Every kWh you generate yourself is a kWh permanently insulated from the next rate case.