Eversource's utility companies are subject to rate regulation that is based on cost recovery and meets the criteria for application of accounting guidance for rate-regulated operations, which considers the effect of regulation on the timing of the recognition of certain revenues and expenses. The regulated companies' financial statements reflect the effects of the rate-making process. The rates charged to the customers of Eversource's regulated companies are designed to collect each company's costs to provide service, plus a return on investment.

The application of accounting guidance for rate-regulated enterprises results in recording regulatory assets and liabilities. Regulatory assets represent the deferral of incurred costs that are probable of future recovery in customer rates. Regulatory assets are amortized as the incurred costs are recovered through customer rates. Regulatory liabilities represent either revenues received from customers to fund expected costs that have not yet been incurred or probable future refunds to customers.

Management believes it is probable that each of the regulated companies will recover its respective investments in long-lived assets and the regulatory assets that have been recorded. If management were to determine that it could no longer apply the accounting guidance applicable to rate-regulated enterprises, or if management could not conclude it is probable that costs would be recovered from customers in future rates, the applicable costs would be charged to net income in the period in which the determination is made.


	As of December 31,
	2022								2021
(Millions of Dollars)	Eversource		CL&P		NSTAR Electric		PSNH		Eversource		CL&P		NSTAR Electric		PSNH
Benefit Costs	$	921.7	$	156.7	$	299.5	$	56.6	$	1,481.0	$	272.4	$	395.5	$	118.9
Storm Costs, Net	1,379.1		799.3		484.4		95.4		1,102.7		695.6		341.3		65.8
Regulatory Tracking Mechanisms	1,075.3		216.8		391.5		73.7		1,050.5		333.6		376.6		85.4
Income Taxes, Net	853.3		491.1		115.6		16.0		790.7		470.5		112.6		17.5
Securitized Stranded Costs	435.7		—		—		435.7		478.9		—		—		478.9
Goodwill-related	281.0		—		241.2		—		297.8		—		255.7		—
Derivative Liabilities	181.8		181.8		—		—		249.2		249.2		—		—
Asset Retirement Obligations	127.9		35.9		68.2		4.4		115.0		33.6		59.8		4.1
Other Regulatory Assets	322.5		26.2		114.0		14.4		150.0		29.9		37.7		15.8
Total Regulatory Assets	5,578.3		1,907.8		1,714.4		696.2		5,715.8		2,084.8		1,579.2		786.4
Less: Current Portion	1,335.5		314.1		492.8		102.2		1,129.1		371.6		444.0		107.2
Total Long-Term Regulatory Assets	$	4,242.8	$	1,593.7	$	1,221.6	$	594.0	$	4,586.7	$	1,713.2	$	1,135.2	$	679.2

Benefit Costs: Deferred benefit costs represent unrecognized actuarial losses and gains and unrecognized prior service costs and credits attributable to Eversource's Pension, SERP and PBOP Plans. The regulated companies record actuarial losses and gains and prior service costs and credits arising at the December 31st remeasurement date of the funded status of the benefit plans as a regulatory asset or regulatory liability in lieu of a charge to Accumulated Other Comprehensive Income/(Loss), reflecting ultimate recovery from customers through rates. The regulatory asset or regulatory liability is amortized with the recognition of actuarial losses and gains and prior service costs and credits to net periodic benefit expense/income over the estimated average future employee service period using the corridor approach. Regulatory accounting is also applied to the portions of Eversource's service company costs that support the regulated companies, as these amounts are also recoverable. As these regulatory assets or regulatory liabilities do not represent a cash outlay for the regulated companies, no carrying charge is recovered from customers. See Note 11A, "Employee Benefits - Pension Benefits and Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pension," for further information on regulatory benefit plan amounts arising and amortized during the year.

Eversource, CL&P, NSTAR Electric, and PSNH recover benefit costs related to their distribution and transmission operations from customers in rates as allowed by their applicable regulatory commissions. NSTAR Electric, NSTAR Gas and EGMA recover qualified pension and PBOP expenses related to their distribution operations through a rate reconciling mechanism that fully tracks the change in net pension and PBOP expenses each year. The electric transmission companies' rates provide for an annual true-up of estimated to actual costs, which include pension and PBOP expenses.

Storm Costs, Net: The storm cost deferrals relate to costs incurred for storm events at CL&P, NSTAR Electric and PSNH that each company expects to recover from customers. A storm must meet certain criteria to qualify for deferral and recovery with the criteria specific to each state jurisdiction and utility company. Once a storm qualifies for recovery, all qualifying expenses incurred during storm restoration efforts are deferred and recovered from customers. Costs for storms that do not meet the specific criteria are expensed as incurred. In addition to storm restoration costs, CL&P and PSNH are each allowed to recover pre-staging storm costs. Management believes all storm costs deferred were prudently incurred and meet the criteria for specific cost recovery in Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and that recovery from customers is probable through the applicable regulatory recovery processes. Each electric utility company either recovers a carrying charge on its deferred storm cost regulatory asset balance or the regulatory asset balance is included in rate base.

Multiple tropical and severe storms over the past several years have caused extensive damage to Eversource’s electric distribution systems resulting in significant numbers and durations of customer outages, along with significant pre-staging costs. Storms in 2022 that qualified for future recovery resulted in deferred storm restoration costs and pre-staging costs totaling $399 million at Eversource, including $163 million at CL&P, $181 million at NSTAR Electric, and $55 million at PSNH. Management believes that all of these storm costs were prudently incurred and meet the criteria for specific cost recovery. Of Eversource’s total deferred storm costs, $1.40 billion either have yet to be filed with the applicable regulatory commission, are pending regulatory approval, or are subject to prudency review (including $807 million at CL&P, $492 million at NSTAR Electric and $98 million at PSNH) as of December 31, 2022. These storm cost totals exclude storm funding amounts that are collected in rates, which are recorded as a reduction to the deferred storm cost regulatory asset balance. NSTAR Electric and PSNH are seeking approval of their deferred storm restoration costs through the applicable regulatory recovery process. As part of CL&P’s October 1, 2021 settlement agreement, CL&P agreed to freeze its current base distribution rates (including storm costs) until no earlier than January 1, 2024. As a result, CL&P has not yet filed for approval of its storm costs in a regulatory proceeding.

CL&P Tropical Storm Isaias Costs: On August 4, 2020, Tropical Storm Isaias caused catastrophic damage to our electric distribution system, which resulted in significant numbers and durations of customer outages, primarily in Connecticut. In terms of customer outages, this storm was one of the worst in CL&P’s history. PURA will investigate the prudency of costs incurred by CL&P to restore service in response to Tropical Storm Isaias. That investigation is expected to occur either in a separate proceeding not yet initiated or as part of CL&P’s next rate review proceeding. Tropical Storm Isaias resulted in deferred storm restoration costs of approximately $235 million at CL&P as of December 31, 2022. Although PURA found that CL&P’s performance in its preparation for, and response to, Tropical Storm Isaias fell below applicable performance standards in certain instances, CL&P believes it will be able to present credible evidence in a future proceeding demonstrating there is no reasonably close causal connection between the alleged sub-standard performance and the storm costs incurred. While it is possible that some amount of storm costs may be disallowed by PURA in a future proceeding, any such amount cannot be estimated at this time. Eversource and CL&P continue to believe that these storm restoration costs associated with Tropical Storm Isaias were prudently incurred and meet the criteria for cost recovery; and as a result, management does not expect the storm cost review by PURA to have a material impact on the financial position or results of operations of Eversource or CL&P.

Regulatory Tracking Mechanisms: The regulated companies' approved rates are designed to recover costs incurred to provide service to customers. The regulated companies recover certain of their costs on a fully-reconciling basis through regulatory commission-approved tracking mechanisms. The differences between the costs incurred (or the rate recovery allowed) and the actual revenues are recorded as regulatory assets (for undercollections) or as regulatory liabilities (for overcollections) to be included in future customer rates each year. Carrying charges are recovered in rates on all material regulatory tracking mechanisms.

The electric and natural gas distribution companies recover, on a fully reconciling basis, the costs associated with the procurement of energy and natural gas supply, electric transmission related costs from FERC-approved transmission tariffs, energy efficiency programs, low income assistance programs, certain uncollectible accounts receivable for hardship customers, restructuring and stranded costs as a result of deregulation (including securitized RRB charges), certain capital tracking mechanisms for infrastructure improvements, and additionally for the Massachusetts utilities, pension and PBOP benefits, net metering for distributed generation, and solar-related programs.

CL&P, NSTAR Electric, Yankee Gas, NSTAR Gas, EGMA and the Aquarion Water Company of Connecticut each have a regulatory commission approved revenue decoupling mechanism. Distribution revenues are decoupled from customer sales volumes, where applicable, which breaks the relationship between sales volumes and revenues. Each company reconciles its annual base distribution rate recovery amount to the pre-established levels of baseline distribution delivery service revenues. Any difference between the allowed level of distribution revenue and the actual amount realized during a 12-month period is adjusted through rates in the following period.

Income Taxes, Net: The tax effect of temporary book-tax differences (differences between the periods in which transactions affect income in the financial statements and the periods in which they affect the determination of taxable income, including those differences relating to uncertain tax positions) is accounted for in accordance with the rate-making treatment of the applicable regulatory commissions and accounting guidance for income taxes. Differences in income taxes between the accounting guidance and the rate-making treatment of the applicable regulatory commissions are recorded as regulatory assets. As these assets are offset by deferred income tax liabilities, no carrying charge is collected. The amortization period of these assets varies depending on the nature and/or remaining life of the underlying assets and liabilities. For further information regarding income taxes, see Note 12, "Income Taxes," to the financial statements.

Securitized Stranded Costs: In 2018, a subsidiary of PSNH issued $635.7 million of securitized RRBs to finance PSNH's unrecovered remaining costs associated with the divestiture of its generation assets. Securitized regulatory assets, which are not earning an equity return, are being recovered over the amortization period of the associated RRBs. The PSNH RRBs are expected to be repaid by February 1, 2033. For further information, see Note 10, "Rate Reduction Bonds and Variable Interest Entities," to the financial statements.

Goodwill-related: The goodwill regulatory asset originated from a 1999 transaction, and the DPU allowed its recovery in NSTAR Electric and NSTAR Gas rates. This regulatory asset is currently being amortized and recovered from customers in rates without a carrying charge over a 40-year period, and as of December 31, 2022, there were 17 years of amortization remaining.

Derivative Liabilities: Regulatory assets are recorded as an offset to derivative liabilities and relate to the fair value of contracts used to purchase energy and energy-related products that will be recovered from customers in future rates. These assets are excluded from rate base and are being recovered as the actual settlements occur over the duration of the contracts. See Note 4, "Derivative Instruments," to the financial statements for further information on these contracts.

Asset Retirement Obligations: The costs associated with the depreciation of the regulated companies' ARO assets and accretion of the ARO liabilities are recorded as regulatory assets in accordance with regulatory accounting guidance. The regulated companies' ARO assets, regulatory assets, and ARO liabilities offset and are excluded from rate base. These costs are being recovered over the life of the underlying property, plant and equipment.

Other Regulatory Assets: Other Regulatory Assets primarily include environmental remediation costs, certain uncollectible accounts receivable for hardship customers, certain exogenous property taxes and merger-related costs allowed for recovery, contractual obligations associated with the spent nuclear fuel storage costs of the CYAPC, YAEC and MYAPC decommissioned nuclear power facilities, water tank painting costs, losses associated with the reacquisition or redemption of long-term debt, and various other items.

Regulatory Costs in Long-Term Assets: Eversource's regulated companies had $210.8 million (including $135.9 million for CL&P, $19.8 million for NSTAR Electric and $1.0 million for PSNH) and $252.5 million (including $114.9 million for CL&P, $85.0 million for NSTAR Electric and $3.4 million for PSNH) of additional regulatory costs as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively, that were included in long-term assets on the balance sheets. These amounts represent incurred costs for which recovery has not yet been specifically approved by the applicable regulatory agency. However, based on regulatory policies or past precedent on similar costs, management believes it is probable that these costs will ultimately be approved and recovered from customers in rates. As of December 31, 2022 and 2021, these regulatory costs included incremental COVID-19 related non-tracked uncollectible expense deferred of $29.8 million and $33.0 million at Eversource, $11.8 million and $18.0 million at CL&P, and $2.2 million and $6.1 million at NSTAR Electric, respectively.

Equity Return on Regulatory Assets: For rate-making purposes, the regulated companies recover the carrying costs related to their regulatory assets. For certain regulatory assets, the carrying cost recovered includes an equity return component. This equity return is not recorded on the balance sheets. The equity return for PSNH was $4.1 million and $5.0 million as of December 31, 2022 and 2021, respectively. These carrying costs will be recovered from customers in future rates.


	As of December 31,
	2022								2021
(Millions of Dollars)	Eversource		CL&P		NSTAR Electric		PSNH		Eversource		CL&P		NSTAR Electric		PSNH
EDIT due to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017	$	2,619.3	$	983.6	$	944.3	$	348.6	$	2,685.2	$	996.1	$	984.5	$	359.2
Cost of Removal	670.6		130.8		405.3		14.7		649.6		100.1		381.0		17.2
Regulatory Tracking Mechanisms	890.8		361.0		336.1		155.0		448.4		182.0		185.1		107.0
Deferred Portion of Non-Service Income Components of Pension, SERP and PBOP	270.9		34.5		139.7		28.8		148.3		12.0		90.7		14.9
Benefit Costs	55.4		0.7		31.4		—		133.5		—		107.4		—
AFUDC - Transmission	98.2		48.2		50.0		—		81.0		43.2		37.8		—
CL&P Settlement Agreement and Storm Performance Penalty	—		—		—		—		81.3		81.3		—		—
Other Regulatory Liabilities	215.9		40.6		14.5		6.5		241.4		45.1		0.8		3.3
Total Regulatory Liabilities	4,821.1		1,599.4		1,921.3		553.6		4,468.7		1,459.8		1,787.3		501.6
Less: Current Portion	890.8		336.0		373.2		162.0		602.4		266.5		228.2		120.2
Total Long-Term Regulatory Liabilities	$	3,930.3	$	1,263.4	$	1,548.1	$	391.6	$	3,866.3	$	1,193.3	$	1,559.1	$	381.4

EDIT due to Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017: Pursuant to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Eversource had remeasured its existing deferred federal income tax balances to reflect the decrease in the U.S. federal corporate income tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent. The remeasurement resulted in provisional regulated excess accumulated deferred income tax (excess ADIT or EDIT) liabilities that will benefit customers in future periods and were recognized as regulatory liabilities on the balance sheet. EDIT liabilities related to property, plant, and equipment are subject to IRS normalization rules and will be returned to customers using the same timing as the remaining useful lives of the underlying assets that gave rise to the ADIT liabilities. Eversource's regulated companies (except for the Connecticut water business) are in the process of refunding the EDIT liabilities to customers based on orders issued by applicable state and federal regulatory commissions.

Cost of Removal: Eversource's regulated companies currently recover amounts in rates for future costs of removal of plant assets over the lives of the assets. The estimated cost to remove utility assets from service is recognized as a component of depreciation expense, and the cumulative amount collected from customers but not yet expended is recognized as a regulatory liability.

Deferred Portion of Non-Service Income Components of Pension, SERP and PBOP: Regulatory liabilities were recorded for the deferred portion of the non-service related components of net periodic benefit expense/(income) for the Pension, SERP and PBOP Plans. These regulatory liabilities will be amortized over the remaining useful lives of the various classes of utility property, plant and equipment.

CL&P Settlement Agreement and Storm Performance Penalty: On April 28, 2021, PURA issued a final decision on CL&P’s compliance with its emergency response plan that concluded CL&P failed to comply with certain storm performance standards and was imprudent in certain instances. A $28.4 million performance penalty assessed by PURA was recorded within current regulatory liabilities on CL&P’s balance sheet and was credited to customers on electric bills beginning on September 1, 2021 over a one-year period. On October 1, 2021, CL&P entered into a settlement agreement with the DEEP, Office of Consumer Counsel, Office of the Attorney General and the Connecticut Industrial Energy Consumers, resolving certain issues that arose in then-pending regulatory proceedings initiated by PURA. PURA approved the settlement agreement on October 27, 2021. CL&P recorded a current regulatory liability of $75 million on the balance sheet associated with the provisions of the settlement agreement. Customer credits of $65 million were distributed based on customer sales over a two-month billing period from December 1, 2021 to January 31, 2022. CL&P also irrevocably set aside $10 million in a customer assistance fund to provide bill payment assistance to certain existing non-hardship and hardship customers carrying arrearages. Those customers were provided with $10 million of bill forgiveness in the first quarter of 2022. The balance as of December 31, 2021 represented the reserve for customer credits not yet issued and bill payment assistance not yet provided. See Note 13G, “Commitments and Contingencies - CL&P Regulatory Matters,” for further information.

FERC ROE Complaints: As of December 31, 2022, Eversource has a reserve established for the second ROE complaint period in the pending FERC ROE complaint proceedings, which was recorded as a regulatory liability and is reflected within Regulatory Tracking Mechanisms in the table above. The cumulative pre-tax reserve (excluding interest) as of December 31, 2022 totaled $39.1 million for Eversource (including $21.4 million for CL&P, $14.6 million for NSTAR Electric and $3.1 million for PSNH). See Note 13E, "Commitments and Contingencies – FERC ROE Complaints," for further information on developments in the pending ROE complaint proceedings.

CL&P Rate Relief Plan: On November 28, 2022, Governor Lamont, DEEP, Office of Consumer Counsel, and CL&P jointly developed a rate relief plan for electric customers for the winter peak season of January 1, 2023 through April 30, 2023. On December 16, 2022, PURA approved the rate relief plan. As part of the rate relief plan, CL&P reduced the Non-Bypassable Federally Mandated Congestion Charge (NBFMCC) rate effective January 1, 2023 to provide customers with an average $10 monthly bill credit from January through April 2023. This rate reduction accelerates the return to customers of net revenues generated by long-term state-approved energy contracts with the Millstone and Seabrook nuclear power plants of approximately $90 million. The rate relief plan also included instituting a temporary, flat monthly discount for qualifying low-income hardship customers effective January 1, 2023. This flat-rate credit will continue until a new low-income discount rate that was approved by PURA in an October 19, 2022 decision is implemented in 2024. These aspects of the rate relief plan do not impact CL&P’s earnings but do impact its future cash flows. Also as part of the rate relief plan, CL&P committed to contribute $10 million to an energy assistance program for qualifying hardship customers, which is expected to be distributed as a bill credit to those customers by the end of the first quarter of 2023. CL&P recorded a current liability of $10 million on the balance sheet and a charge to expense on the statement of income for the year ended December 31, 2022 associated with the customer assistance program.

NSTAR Electric Distribution Rate Case: On November 30, 2022, the DPU issued its decision in the NSTAR Electric distribution rate case and approved a base distribution rate increase of $64 million effective January 1, 2023. The DPU approved a renewal of the performance-based ratemaking (PBR) plan originally authorized in its previous rate case for a five-year term, with a corresponding stay out provision. The PBR plan term has the possibility of a five-year extension. The PBR mechanism allows for an annual adjustment to base distribution rates for inflation and exogenous events. The DPU also allowed for adjustments to the PBR mechanism for the recovery of future capital additions based on a historical five-year average of total capital additions, beginning with the January 1, 2024 PBR adjustment. The decision allows an authorized regulatory ROE of 9.80 percent on a capital structure including 53.2 percent equity.

Among other items, the DPU approved an increase to the annual storm fund contribution collected through base distribution rates from $10 million to $31 million, and allowed for the recovery of storm threshold costs of $1.3 million per storm event subsequent to the eighth storm in a calendar year (six recovered in base rates plus two additional storms). The DPU approved cost recovery of a portion of NSTAR Electric’s outstanding storm costs beginning on January 1, 2023 and January 1, 2024, subject to reconciliation from future prudency reviews. In a subsequent compliance filing, the DPU allowed recovery to commence for outstanding storm costs occurring between 2018 and 2022 and interest in a total of $162.1 million over a five-year period starting January 1, 2023. In addition, NSTAR Electric will begin to recover 2021 exogenous storms and interest in a total of $220.9 million over a five-year period beginning January 1, 2024. The DPU also approved the recovery of historical exogenous property taxes of $30.8 million incurred from 2020 through 2022 over a two-year period and $8.3 million incurred from 2012 through 2015 over a five-year period effective January 1, 2023. As a result of this decision, these deferred property taxes were reclassified from Other Long-Term Assets to Regulatory Assets on the NSTAR Electric balance sheet.

NSTAR Gas Distribution Rates: As part of an inflation-based mechanism, NSTAR Gas submitted its second annual Performance Based Rate Adjustment filing on September 15, 2022 and on October 31, 2022, the DPU approved a $21.7 million increase to base distribution rates for effect on November 1, 2022. The increase is inclusive of a $4.5 million permanent increase related to exogenous property taxes and a $5.4 million increase related to an October 6, 2021 mitigation plan filing that delayed recovery of a portion of a base distribution rate increase originally scheduled to take effect November 1, 2021. The DPU also approved the recovery of historical exogenous property taxes incurred from November 1, 2020 through October 31, 2022 of $8.2 million over a two-year period through a separate reconciling mechanism effective November 1, 2022. As a result of this decision, these deferred property taxes were reclassified from Other Long-Term Assets to Regulatory Assets on the Eversource balance sheet.

EGMA Distribution Rates: As established in an October 7, 2020 EGMA Rate Settlement Agreement approved by the DPU, on September 16, 2022 EGMA filed for its second base distribution rate increase and on October 31, 2022, the DPU approved a $6.7 million increase to base distribution rates and a $3.3 million increase to the Tax Act Credit Factor for effect on November 1, 2022. The DPU also approved the recovery of historical exogenous property taxes incurred from November 1, 2020 through October 31, 2022 of $8.6 million over a two-year period through a separate reconciling mechanism effective November 1, 2022. EGMA will request recovery of incremental property taxes incurred after October 31, 2022 in future exogenous filings. As a result of this decision, these deferred property taxes were reclassified from Other Long-Term Assets to Regulatory Assets on the Eversource balance sheet.