Joe Nolan is the CEO of Eversource, the energy monopoly that services Connecticut and other states. He logged onto an investor conference on Wednesday morning and spent 30 minutes selling his company to investors who buy energy stocks for a living.
He ended the meeting with a stock tip. “Tip of the day is Eversource, all right?” he said, according to a transcript of the session. “It’s undervalued. Get in heavy.”
If you’re like me and live somewhere that Eversource services, you can see the bull case every month… on your electric bill. As the CEO was giving a “stock tip” to Wall Street, his company is asking state regulators for $451 million more a year. The AG’s office estimates it will raise residential electric bills by about 11%. Eversource also wants a 10.25% return on equity for its shareholders too. The decision comes in the middle of 2027.
The most interesting thing the CEO said wasn’t the stock tip.
“We just shut the faucet off in Connecticut until we get the storm cost,” Nolan told the room. “We weren’t going to put another dime down there.”
Eversource has been fighting Connecticut regulators over storm costs. The CEO said Eversource stopped spending in the state. So the company that maintains the lines over our streets, is telling investors that he’s holding back work in the state until the state pays up?
And it’s hard to reconcile with the company’s own numbers. Eversource’s quarterly SEC filing shows its electric utility in Connecticut spent $511.5M on capital projects in the first half of 2026. So either the faucet was never turned completely off or Nolan was referring to projects Eversource chose not to work on.
I reached out to Eversource asking what projects were paused, I haven’t heard back.
Either way, the pressure worked. In July, Connecticut regulators approved $869M in storm costs and Nolan told the investors that the utility commission is a different animal now.
“We’re not going to get the types of surprises that we’ve gotten in the past,” he said. “This is a stable regulatory body that’s engaged.”
The evidence is looser than Nolan’s confidence. He claimed Eversource won $960M (or 96% of its storm request figure) but no document tracks that and the company’s own earnings slides don’t either.
He also had his facts wrong. He said the commission has 5 new members when it only has 4. He also claimed a gas rate case jumped from $70M to $104M but PURA’s actual decision gave the company about $87 million.
It’s worth paying attention to Nolan talking about turning the faucet off with what’s coming down the pike. The next big project is smart meters, a project Nolan told investors will now cost $1B because of the delays. Eversource had put its own estimate at $855 million in 2024. You’ll be paying for this on your future bills. Nolan is adamant that the company gets its cost recovery locked in before the meters go up.
The same goes for a new substation and an extra $60M needed for tree trimming. The work that’s needed before the next big storm (that brings down trees and blocks roads) is behind the meters in the queue.
Eversource also revealed in filings that it’s weighing “potential legal courses of action” over storm repair costs that PURA denied. Nolan put it simply in the Wall Street meeting: “That’s not over yet.”