WRGB Studios-Schenectady, NY — New York’s Public Service Commission moved forward with its implementation of the new Energy Affordability Index on Thursday, aligning with Governor Hochul’s FY2027 Budget, which featured a package of measures aimed at lowering utility bills.
The Energy Affordability Index will apply to the evaluation of rate increase proposals by the utility companies, with the State’s goal being to keep electric and gas utility expenses below six percent of household income.
Over the next few months, utility companies are now asked to calculate their Affordability Index, and provide data pertaining to: customer populations, median energy usage, and median annual bills segmented at the zip code level and broken down by service type, service class, and heat-related versus non-heat.
That data will then be evaluated by the PSC, and then applied moving forward.
“What we’ve added to the mix is the development of this Energy Affordability Index, which is going to look at what the impacts of those investments are going to have directly on individuals’ bills and give us a greater set of tools for which to determine what investments should we be making now versus investments that could wait a little while to lessen the impact on the average user.” PSC Chair and CEO Rory Christian told CBS6’s Tom Eschen on Thursday.
As a part of the “Energy Affordability Agenda”, utility company CEOs will have their salaries aligned to achieving energy affordability goals set by the PSC, and if a utility makes excess profit, that money will be returned to ratepayers.
That full conversation with Christian will be available on Friday.