Eversource Energy executives announced during the company’s year-end earnings call Feb. 12 its plan to increase investments in its “core electric and natural gas operations” by $1.9 billion in 2025-2028 in the wake of its exit from the offshore wind business and finalizing the sale of its water utility.
“The $1.9 billion increase is primarily driven by higher electric transmission and higher electric distribution investments in Massachusetts,” CFO John Moreira said.
The company took a net after-tax loss of $524 million from the sale of its offshore wind business in 2024, which came in the wake of a $1.95 billion loss from offshore wind in 2023. Its pending sale of Aquarion Water to a new Connecticut-owned water authority, announced in late January, brought an additional loss of $298 million.
“Proceeds from the [Aquarion] sale will be used to reduce debt, allowing us to reinvest capital into our regulated utilities” in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New Hampshire, Eversource CEO Joe Nolan said.
Between 2025 and 2029, the company plans to invest a total of $24.2 billion across its gas and electric businesses, which includes “only those projects that we have clear line of sight on from a regulatory approval perspective,” Moreira said. This includes nearly $7 billion in transmission investments, focused on projects to replace aging infrastructure, increase extreme weather resilience and interconnect renewables.
The plan also features more than $10 billion for electric distribution upgrades, focused on reliability and resilience. This includes $850 million to deploy advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) in Massachusetts, which will “allow customers to increasingly participate in the transformation of energy usage,” Moreira said. Eversource’s goal is to achieve full AMI deployment by 2029.
Moreira said the company could invest an additional $2 billion in investment over the five-year period, highlighting the deployment of AMI and electric vehicle infrastructure in Connecticut, large-scale solar generation in New Hampshire and upgrades at its LNG facilities.
“The biggest component of that incremental investment opportunity is Connecticut AMI,” Nolan said.
The company and the state have struggled to agree on how to fund the deployment of meters for 1.3 million customers, which is expected to cost $766 million. Eversource and Avangrid, which both own utilities in Connecticut, have frequently decried the regulatory climate in the state under the leadership of Public Utilities Regulatory Authority Chair Marissa Gillett. In January, the companies filed a lawsuit alleging that Gillett has abused her authority as the head of the agency.
“PURA’s use of unlawful procedures to vest unchecked decision-making authority in a single individual has resulted in an environment of opaque, unpredictable and arbitrary regulatory outcomes,” Eversource wrote in a cease-and-desist letter to the agency on Jan. 14.
“We continue to await PURA’s action as they consider the final decision” on the AMI meters, Nolan said.
Gov. Ned Lamont (D) has stood by Gillett, who is up for reappointment. He has disputed the utilities’ claims that the authority has unlawfully made decisions without holding votes between all three commissioners.
“Stop litigating this in the press,” Lamont said in a January news conference. “If you don’t like a decision, you can appeal it. I think that is the best way to handle this.”
Regarding Massachusetts, Nolan highlighted Eversource’s recent acquisition of part of the retired Mystic Generating Station from Constellation Energy.
“Purchasing this site will allow us to transform it into a premier energy interconnection hub that enhances reliability and energy supply diversity for the entire New England region,” Nolan said. He noted that the company is still evaluating investment opportunities at the site.
Asked about potential additional delays to Revolution Wind after Ørsted appeared to push the offshore wind project’s timeline back at its earnings call earlier in the month, Nolan said that “nothing has changed on Revolution; we continue to make great progress.”
While the company sold its stake in the project to Global Infrastructure Partners, it remains on the hook for price adjustments if the project’s pre-tax, equity internal rate of return falls below 13%. These adjustments would be applied upon the project’s commercial operations date. Eversource also shares partial responsibility for construction cost overruns on the project.
“The 20th turbine is being loaded now at New London. … We feel very good about executing there,” Nolan said.
