While power can be purchased directly from The United Illuminating Company (UI) we recommend you consider a third-party supplier. To create a competitive market, rules and restrictions have been put in place that drive UI’s power costs artificially high.

Connecticut’s Department of Public Utility Control provides an updated list of certified power suppliers and aggregators (firms that pool customers to increase purchasing leverage.) Use this link to view the most up-to-date list.

Because a company can literally “shop” their power needs in order to get the best price it is difficult to provide a sample energy price. Generally the generation portion accounts for two-thirds of a customer’s monthly bill. No matter who a company decides to buy power from the electricity will still be delivered by UI and they will receive only one bill. If UI is not the supplier, UI will still collect the money for generation, acting as a “pass-through” for the supplier with no additional charges. On average transmission, distribution and public service fees total $.06/kWh. A UI account manager can give an estimate for generation charges upon request.

The nature of Connecticut’s Central Coast (The United Illuminating service territory,) urban and densely populated rural locations, lends itself to a well maintained and reliable electric system. UI is committed to reinvesting in infrastructure to maintain reliability. The company’s current 10-year plan shows a $900 million investment in infrastructure improvements.

This continued commitment to improvement is why The United Illuminating Company maintains first-quartile SAIFI and SAIDI scores when compared with other utilities nationally.

•	2008 Monthly System Average SAIDI (System Average Interruption Duration Index): 6.17
•	2008 Monthly System Average SAIFI (System Average Interruption Frequency Index):  .063
•	2008 Monthly Average SARFI (System Average RMS Frequency Index): .49

SARFI is used to measure power quality in the form of voltage sag performance at UI's substations on a monthly basis and is a general indicator of power quality on the distribution system. SARFI indices are influenced by both distribution and transmission events and include major events such as major storms.  The SARFI index represents the number of voltage variation incidents at the substation bus averaged over 30 days.

Through the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund, The United Illuminating Company, your electric service provider for Connecticut’s Central Coast, incentivizes the purchase of high efficient lighting, HVAC systems and other custom measures for new and existing facilities. In 2008, the program provided an annual energy savings of 368 million kWh statewide – enough energy to serve more than 43,000 homes in Connecticut for an entire year.

At no charge, The United Illuminating Company will review your facility's current energy consumption or your designs for new construction or renovation, and recommend energy-efficient equipment and materials. These can include lighting, HVAC systems, refrigeration, building envelope, motors, various industrial machinery and renewable resource technologies. Then, UI pays you cash incentives from the Connecticut Energy Efficiency Fund to make the recommendations happen. Depending on the type of program and / or measures, these incentives can account for up to 100% of the incremental costs. And best of all, these energy-efficient measures help your business increase productivity and reduce waste. So, in essence, you're getting paid to make your business better, and save you money. For a complete listing of incentives please see our Green Incentives page.

The Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, operated by Connecticut Innovations, promotes clean and renewable energy in Connecticut with more than $96.5 million spent on projects across the state. The On-site Renewable Distributed Generation Program gives companies power freedom and an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint. The program reduces the cost and payback time for installing clean energy generation at a company’s facility.

On-site clean energy not only helps the environment, but also your bottom line. A company not only receives a cash incentive to install generation, but savings every year from producing its own clean energy. Renewable Energy Credits (REC) are granted for these projects and can be sold and traded.

The specific grant amount is determined after an assessment and project modeling have been completed. There is a $4 million funding cap for any project ($2.5 million for solar.) For a complete listing of incentives please see our Green Incentives page.

In 2007 Connecticut’s peak demand was 7,320 megawatts while the state’s current generation capacity is 8,569 megawatts. To maintain this surplus of capacity Connecticut is adding more peaking generation. By 2012 537 MW of new peaking capacity will be on-line at 3 new facilities including 400 MW provided by GenConn a joint venture of The United Illuminating Company and NRG Energy. In addition Connecticut is committed to continued spending on energy efficiency to reduce the overall demand.

Also, Connecticut and The United Illuminating Company (UI) continue to make improvements to the local grid to improve capacity. In 2009 UI and Northeast Utilities completed work on a 69-mile 345 kV transmission line to bring more power to Southeast Connecticut and reduce electric congestion. On the distribution side UI continues to make investments in new substations and upgrades to meet future capacity needs. In 2008 UI entered a new substation into service in Trumbull and others are planned for the region.