Bidding to overturn a draft ruling by Connecticut utility regulators that rejects a rate increase, The United Illuminating Co. staged a rally outside the New Britain headquarters of the Connecticut Public Utility Regulatory Authority on Friday afternoon.

The unusual public relations spectacle was held before a hearing on a July draft decision by PURA. The rally included employees of the company, such as unionized power line repair workers, who said they were attending by their own volition.

More than 150 UI employees gathered outside PURA in Franklin Square and while most declined to speak on the record, Will Coleman, a line worker, said he was there because of safety concerns.

"I'm a safety officer and a training person for the union and I'm concerned that with the cuts to the training budget and staffing levels, our safety could be at risk and reliability to provide electricity could be at risk," he said.

PURA commissioners on July 21 approved a distribution rate increase for UI that was a small fraction of the 8 percent rate hike the company had sought. A final ruling in the case is scheduled for Aug. 25.

The rally and hearing on rate hike request were held as PURA's commissioners have come under criticism from Wall Street financial analysts and executives at UI and the state's other large electric utility, Eversource Energy.

Commissioners have been criticized as being heavy handed and overstepping their bounds in several rulings in rate cases involving the companies this year. Officials at both companies contend the agency's rate case rulings discourage future investment by them in the state and threaten their ability to operate their distribution networks reliably and safely.

Those who follow regulated utilities in Connecticut are hard pressed to recall if there has ever been a case where a utility company has actually organized a public rally to sway public opinion on a PURA ruling.

The space outside of PURA's Franklin Square headquarters has been the scene of a numerous press conferences over the past several decades at which state officials and political leaders have spoken out on issues that utility regulators were adjudicating at the time. There have even been some instances in which grass roots citizens groups with a stake in PURA's rulings have rallied outside the agency's headquarters, which is located opposite New Britain Superior Court.

Duby McDowell, whose Hartford-based public relations and strategic communications firm advises both businesses and political leaders, said UI's strategy in this case "is both bold and risky," especially in it inclusion of company employees to make its case.

"On the one hand, policy makers have sympathy for employees," McDowell said. "But if it's clear that the company encouraged the employees to rally, it could seem orchestrated by the corporation and therefore less effective."

The rally isn't sitting well with a New Haven UI customer who has led numerous fights to keep the utility's rates down over the past 20 years. Paula Panzarella and her husband founded the grassroots organization Fight the Hike about two decades ago and she said prior to Friday's rally that while she supports the right of the company to make a fair wage and work safely, executives at the company are hurting customers.

"Ratepayers should not suffer because of of the greed of shareholders and company executives," Panzarella said. "It's ridiculous for the company to be squeezing ratepayers for more money in this way. It's totally ridiculous that the company organized a rally when they have paid lobbyists around Hartford all the time."

UI became part of the U.S. utility holdings of Spanish energy giant Ibredrola in 2015. Ibredrola's U.S. holdings, which stretch from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., are overseen by Orange-based Avangrid.

UI has 341,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in 17 communities located around the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas.