Aquarion seeking 17.5 percent rate increase

Bridgeport-based Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut, which serves nearly 5,000 customers in Mystic and Stonington, has notified the state Department of Public Utility Control that it will be requesting a rate increase this year averaging 17.5 percent.

The request, which the company said would amount to 24 cents a day for a typical customer, is not the specific increase being sought for Mystic and Stonington customers, but reflects an average Aquarion will be asking for across five separate markets. Company spokesman Bruce Silverstone said he should have more information about local rate increases before Aquarion formally files its rate case March 15 with the DPUC.

"We fully appreciate the difficult economic environment we're in, but the infrastructure needs to be replaced," Silverstone said today in a phone interview.

Aquarion's request comes about three years after it sought a controversial 24 percent increase in water-use charges that got whittled down to 11.7 percent when the DPUC finally approved a rate rise in December 2007.

The rate increase in 2007 was Aquarion's first in 10 years.

Silverstone said Aquarion, taking its cue from the DPUC, is now planning to file rate-increase requests every three years. The latest request, he said, reflects reduced staffing levels of more than 20 percent since 2002, lower salaries worked out with unions, enhanced-productivity technology and greater efficiencies in its power usage.

"Our commitment to efficiency and controlling costs has resulted in this rate request being $12.2 million, or 9.3 percent lower than it would have been otherwise," said Chuck Firlotte, Aquarion's president and chief executive, in a statement.

Aquarion said the overall rate increase of 17.5 percent will raise an extra $23.2 million for the company. The company added that the increase includes a previously approved adjustment that brings the real raise for ratepayers to 16.1 percent.

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