Eversource’s CEO Was Paid Nearly $15M. The Company Wants $503M More.

Executive pay doesn't cause the rate increase. But it's why Eversource is short on trust as it asks customers for $503M more.

On May 20, Eversource notified Connecticut’s regulators that it plans to seek its first distribution rate hike in nearly a decade.

The number in the request is $503M a year. This is the additional money that the Connecticut Light and Power Company, which is what Eversource calls itself when it sells you power here, says it needs for its distribution system. The company estimates that this would raise total bills by about 11% across all customers and 13% for a typical residential customer. The distribution line itself, the part this is really about, would climb roughly 35%. These new rates are proposed for next year.

This is the first number. There’s also a second number in a different filing.

The proxy statement Eversource filed with the SEC this spring lists CEO Joseph Nolan’s 2025 comp at $14.9M. It also shows a lower adjusted figure of $13.5M, a number you’ll see in some coverage, but Eversource uses the larger total to actually calculate its pay ratio. It’s 104x the median worker’s pay. In 2025, the parent company reported $1.69B in net income.

This information isn’t coming from a critic, it’s from Eversource’s own words.

The CEO’s comp isn’t part of the rate request, and that’s a fair point. The company says that no salary or bonus from its CEO, CFO or president is included in the $503M ask. Even if the CEO worked for free, the shortfall would still be there. It’s a fight over how much it costs to maintain poles, wires, substations, etc.

So the CEO salary doesn’t explain the rate increase. This is 100% true.

But it still matters. Residents who watch this company pay its CEO $15M aren’t going to take a 13% increase lightly. They want the math and Eversource needs to show it.

This is the honest view of the argument. The $15M isn’t causing your bill to go up. It’s the reason Eversource is short on trust at the exact moment it’s asking for a lot of it.

Now the request goes to PURA (the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority), a board recently rebuilt over the last year. Governor Lamont nominated a bunch of new members and named Thomas Wiehl as the new chair. The law gives them the power to make the call about the increase.

PURA won’t be ruling on whether the $15M salary is excessive. It’ll be deciding how much of the $503M request is justified: which investments matter, what the company is allowed to earn and what we actually pay.

A lot of the coverage misses that nothing will happen fast. Eversource will file its full application around July 14. State law then gives PURA up to 350 days after the effective filing date to make a decision.

Some quick napkin math and it seems like a resolution by next summer, with new rates proposed for July 1, 2027. This won’t be settled this year.

As we wait, the state is pulling levers that move faster than a rate case. Connecticut’s agencies filed a complaint at FERC on June 11 to stop extra revenue Eversource and United Illuminating collect on their lines. It was a bonus on top of the profit they’re already guaranteed.

And on May 1, the public benefits charge flipped from a cost to a credit, which will hold through at least September.

These levers will lower your bill before PURA ever rules on the rate hike. But they don’t affect the $503 million ask.

That fight belongs solely to PURA and it runs into next summer. They’ll decide how much of Eversource’s request is justified and how much of it hits your bill.

The $15M comp won’t appear anywhere in that ruling. It sits in the back of the room while the decision gets made. A company that pays one man that much, in the same year it asks for $503 million more, doesn’t get the benefit of the doubt. A lot of people will be watching the math.