PENSION BENEFITS AND POSTRETIREMENT BENEFITS OTHER THAN PENSIONS

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2012

Notes To Consolidated Financial Statements [Abstract]

Pension and Other Postretirement Benefits Disclosure [Text Block]

9.EMPLOYEE BENEFITS

• Pension Benefits and Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pensions

NUSCO sponsors a defined benefit retirement plan that covers nonbargaining unit employees (and bargaining unit employees, as negotiated), including CL&P, PSNH, and WMECO employees, hired before 2006 (or as negotiated, for bargaining unit employees) andNSTAR Electricserves as plan sponsor for a defined benefit retirement plan that covers substantially all employees of NSTAR Electric & Gas, which is a Northeast Utilities service company. Both plans are subject to the provisions of ERISA, as amended by the PPA of 2006. NU and NSTAR Electric & Gas each maintain SERPs and other non-qualified defined benefit plans, which provide benefits in excess of Internal Revenue Code limitations to eligible current and retired participants that would have otherwise been provided under the Pension Plans. Amounts related to these plans are included with the Pension Plans in the tables below.

NUSCO and NSTAR Electric & Gas also sponsor plans that provide certain retiree health care benefits, primarily medical and dental, and life insurance benefits through PBOP Plans and Group Welfare Benefit Plans to employees that meet certain age and service eligibility requirements. Under certain circumstances, eligible retirees are required to contribute to the costs of postretirement benefits.

The funded status of each of the plans is recorded on the respective sponsor's balance sheet: NUSCO (NUSCO pension, NUSCO PBOP and NUSCO SERP), NSTAR Electric (NSTAR pension) and NSTAR Electric & Gas (NSTAR SERP and PBOP). The NUSCO plans are accounted for under the multiple-employer approach, and therefore, the funded status of the NUSCO plans is allocated to and recorded on the balance sheets of CL&P, PSNH and WMECO. The NSTAR plans were accounted for under the multi-employer approach prior to the merger and NU continues to account for these plans under the multi-employer approach. Under multi-employer accounting, the funded status is recorded on the plan sponsor's balance sheet and other subsidiaries that participate in the plan record any unpaid contributions to the plan on their respective balance sheets. Accordingly, the balance sheet of NSTAR Electric reflects the full funded status of the NSTAR Pension Plan and does not reflect the funded status of the NSTAR PBOP or SERP plans.

The components of net periodic benefit expense for the Pension Plans (including the SERPs) and PBOP Plans, the portion of pension amounts capitalized relating to employees working on capital projects, andintercompany allocations to CL&P, NSTAR Electric, PSNH and WMECO not included in their respective net periodic benefit expense are as follows

	Pension and SERP Plans
	For the Three Months Ended				For the Nine Months Ended
	September 30, 2012		September 30, 2011		September 30, 2012		September 30, 2011
(Millions of Dollars)	NU		NU		NU		NU
Service Cost	$	23.0	$	13.8	$	61.1	$	27.5
Interest Cost		53.3		38.3		144.7		76.5
Expected Return on Plan Assets		(59.5)		(42.7)		(161.3)		(85.8)
Actuarial Loss		47.4		21.1		125.0		42.1
Prior Service Cost		2.0		2.4		6.1		4.8
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense	$	66.2	$	32.9	$	175.6	$	65.1
Capitalized Pension Expense	$	19.2	$	7.8	$	49.5	$	23.5
	PBOP Plans and Group Welfare Benefit Plans
	For the Three Months Ended				For the Nine Months Ended
	September 30, 2012		September 30, 2011		September 30, 2012		September 30, 2011
(Millions of Dollars)	NU		NU		NU		NU
Service Cost	$	4.4	$	2.3	$	11.3	$	6.8
Interest Cost		14.3		6.4		34.4		19.3
Expected Return on Plan Assets		(11.1)		(5.4)		(28.1)		(16.2)
Actuarial Loss		10.3		4.8		25.5		14.3
Prior Service Credit		(0.5)		(0.1)		(0.9)		(0.2)
Net Transition Obligation Cost		3.1		2.9		9.0		8.7
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense	$	20.5	$	10.9	$	51.2	$	32.7

		Pension and SERP Plans
		For the Three Months Ended September 30, 2012								For the Three Months Ended September 30, 2011
				NSTAR								NSTAR
(Millions of Dollars)		CL&P		Electric (1)		PSNH		WMECO		CL&P		Electric(1), (2)		PSNH		WMECO
Service Cost		$	5.4	$	7.6	$	2.9	$	1.0	$	4.9	$	6.5	$	2.6	$	1.0
Interest Cost			12.9		14.7		6.1		2.6		13.0		15.2		6.1		2.7
Expected Return on Plan Assets			(17.7)		(16.4)		(7.2)		(4.1)		(19.1)		(17.8)		(5.0)		(4.4)
Actuarial Loss			12.6		15.7		4.2		2.7		8.2		12.2		2.6		1.7
Prior Service Cost/(Credit)			0.9		(0.1)		0.4		0.2		1.1		(0.2)		0.5		0.2
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense		$	14.1	$	21.5	$	6.4	$	2.4	$	8.1	$	15.9	$	6.8	$	1.2
Related Intercompany
	Allocations	$	10.7	$	(3.0)	$	2.4	$	2.1	$	8.5	$	(2.3)	$	1.9	$	1.6
Capitalized Pension Expense		$	6.8	$	8.4	$	1.9	$	1.3	$	4.5	$	4.9	$	2.1	$	0.7
		Pension and SERP Plans
		For the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2012								For the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2011
				NSTAR								NSTAR
(Millions of Dollars)		CL&P		Electric(1), (2)		PSNH		WMECO		CL&P		Electric(1), (2)		PSNH		WMECO
Service Cost		$	16.3	$	22.7	$	8.8	$	3.1	$	14.6	$	19.5	$	7.9	$	3.0
Interest Cost			38.5		44.2		18.3		7.9		39.1		45.7		18.4		8.1
Expected Return on Plan Assets			(52.8)		(49.2)		(21.1)		(12.3)		(57.4)		(53.5)		(15.0)		(13.2)
Actuarial Loss			37.0		47.3		12.1		8.0		24.8		36.5		7.8		5.1
Prior Service Cost/(Credit)			2.7		(0.4)		1.1		0.6		3.1		(0.6)		1.5		0.6
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense		$	41.7	$	64.6	$	19.2	$	7.3	$	24.2	$	47.6	$	20.6	$	3.6
Related Intercompany
	Allocations	$	32.0	$	(9.2)	$	7.5	$	6.0	$	25.0	$	(6.8)	$	5.7	$	4.6
Capitalized Pension Expense		$	20.2	$	23.6	$	5.8	$	3.7	$	13.4	$	14.7	$	5.9	$	2.1

		PBOP Plans
		For the Three Months Ended September 30, 2012						For the Three Months Ended September 30, 2011
(Millions of Dollars)		CL&P			PSNH		WMECO	CL&P		PSNH		WMECO
Service Cost		$	0.8	$	0.5	$	0.1	$	0.7	$	0.5	$	0.2
Interest Cost			2.3		1.1		0.5		2.5		1.2		0.5
Expected Return on Plan Assets			(2.3)		(1.1)		(0.5)		(2.2)		(1.1)		(0.5)
Actuarial Loss			1.9		0.9		0.3		1.9		0.8		0.3
Net Transition Obligation Cost			1.5		0.6		0.3		1.5		0.6		0.3
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense		$	4.2	$	2.0	$	0.7	$	4.4	$	2.0	$	0.8
Related Intercompany
	Allocations	$	2.0	$	0.5	$	0.4	$	2.0	$	0.5	$	0.4
		PBOP Plans
		For the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2012						For the Nine Months Ended September 30, 2011
(Millions of Dollars)		CL&P		PSNH		WMECO		CL&P		PSNH		WMECO
Service Cost		$	2.2	$	1.5	$	0.4	$	2.2	$	1.4	$	0.4
Interest Cost			6.9		3.4		1.5		7.5		3.6		1.6
Expected Return on Plan Assets			(6.8)		(3.4)		(1.6)		(6.5)		(3.3)		(1.5)
Actuarial Loss			5.7		2.7		0.9		5.4		2.4		0.9
Net Transition Obligation Cost			4.6		1.9		1.1		4.6		1.9		1.0
Total - Net Periodic Benefit Expense		$	12.6	$	6.1	$	2.3	$	13.2	$	6.0	$	2.4
Related Intercompany
	Allocations	$	5.9	$	1.5	$	1.1	$	6.2	$	1.5	$	1.1

• NSTAR Electric's pension amounts do not include SERP expense.
• NSTAR Electric's pension expense for the nine months ended September 30, 2012 included $21.6million of costs incurred prior to the closing of NSTAR's merger with NU. These amounts are not included in NU's net periodic benefit costs for the nine months ended September 30, 2012. The NSTAR Electric expenses are not included in the consolidated NU results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011.

NSTAR Electric PBOP Expense: NSTAR Electric participates in a PBOP Plan sponsored by NSTAR Electric& Gas. NSTAR Electric recognizes unpaid contributions that are due to NSTAR Electric & Gas as a liability on the accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets. The funded status of the PBOP plan is reflected on NU's accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheet. However, the funded status of the PBOP plan is not reflected on NSTAR Electric's accompanying unaudited condensed consolidated balance sheets.For the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, the net periodic postretirement benefit costs allocated to NSTAR Electric were $8.5 million and$25.6 million, respectively, of which $9 million was incurred prior to the closing of NSTAR's merger with NU. These amounts were $6.4million and $19.2million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011, respectively. These amounts are fully recovered from customers in cost-of-service regulated rates.

Curtailment Expense (SERP): NU recorded curtailment expense of $1.8million for the NUSCO SERPfor the nine months ended September 30, 2012 to reflect charges related to organization changes that occurred as a result of the merger.

Contributions:NU's policy is to annually fund the Pension Plansin an amount at least equal to an amount that will satisfy the requirements of ERISA, as amended by the PPA of 2006, and the Internal Revenue Code. Based on the current status of the NUSCO Pension Plan, NU is required to make a contribution to the NUSCO Pension Plan of $197.3million in 2012 to meet minimum funding requirements under the PPA. Contributions are being made in installments and began in January 2012. NU made contributions totaling $35.2million and $162.3million($87.7million of which was contributed by PSNH in the first quarter of 2012) for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012, respectively. NSTAR Electric made contributions to the NSTAR Electric PensionPlan of $18.7 million and $25 million for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2012. NSTAR Electric does not anticipate additional contributions to the pension plan for the remainder of 2012. The actual level of funding may differ from this estimate.