Relevant Document:PURA RulingTakeaways
- Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, ruled against Connecticut Water Service, or CTWS, and SJW Group’s motion to reopen the proceedings and extend the procedural schedule today Jan. 4.
- PURA handed down a draft decision to block SJW’s acquisition of CTWS on Dec. 3, but the companies asked PURA to reopen the record to allow them to submit new evidence by Dec. 14.
- Along with the filing of purported new evidence, the companies asked PURA to reopen the proceedings and extend the procedural schedule. The motion was supported by Connecticut’s Office of Consumer Counsel, but disputed by Eversource Energy.
- In today’s ruling, PURA chided the companies, noting that PURA “expended extensive resources reviewing three iterations of this merger.” PURA said the companies submitted limited “new” evidence and instead offered new commitments to rectify PURA’s concerns.
- According to PURA, the companies have until noon on Jan. 9 to request the right to file written exceptions and request oral argument. At that time PURA will issue a new schedule. However, if no requests are filed the proposed final decision PURA made in December denying the acquisition will become final on Jan. 16.
Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, ruled against Connecticut Water Service, or CTWS, and SJW Group’s motion to reopen the proceedings and extend the procedural schedule today Jan. 4.
In a strongly worded order, PURA chided the companies, noting that PURA “expended extensive resources reviewing three iterations of this merger.” PURA said the companies only submitted limited “new” evidence in the December filings and instead offered new commitments to rectify PURA’s concerns. “These concessions and offers of commitments do not constitute new evidence as required in the Authority’s Motion 17 Ruling. To the extent that some of the filed material contains “new” evidence, the material is insufficient to warrant reopening the record as it does not adequately remedy the defects of the Application identified in the Proposed Final Decision.”
Following PURA’s draft Dec. 3
decision to block SJW’s acquisition of CTWS, the companies asked PURA to reopen the record to admit new evidence in the regulator’s review of SJW’s acquisition. PURA ordered the companies to file any new evidence by Dec. 14.
Among the supposed new evidence that the companies submitted, SJW told the Connecticut regulator that it had completed its equity issuance, raising more than $400 million that will assist in financing the transaction. The companies also made additional commitments in an attempt to mitigate the concerns identified by PURA in their draft decision before asking PURA to reopen the proceedings and extend the procedural schedule.
Eversource Energy, an intervenor in the case that previously submitted a bid for the CTWS, objected to any reopening of the proceedings, while the companies’ request was supported by Connecticut’s Office of Consumer Counsel.
The companies have until noon on Jan. 9 to request the right to file written exceptions and request oral argument. At that time PURA will issue a new schedule. However, if no requests are filed the proposed final decision PURA made in December denying the acquisition will become final on Jan. 16.
--Kathryn Haake