PURA staff and the Office of Consumer Counsel asked Hazardville Water Company on Dec. 4 to provide usage data for the top 15% of residential users (monthly and quarterly) for calendar years 2022–2024 and to produce a hypothetical inclining block-rate model for that cohort.

Attorney Skarsinski and OCC counsel framed the request as a data-driven exercise to test whether an inclining-rate structure could target high discretionary usage without a formal company proposal. The company agreed to submit the requested spreadsheet as Late File 44 and to add a hypothetical inclining-block-rate model based on that resulting data.

Company witnesses told the panel that instituting an inclining block for residential customers is feasible in their billing software and ‘‘would be a fairly quick turnaround’’ if ordered; the implementation work, they said, largely concerns selecting appropriate threshold volumes and ensuring revenue neutrality under the approved revenue requirement. The company cautioned that customers with irrigation systems and newer homes are most likely to be affected and would likely object to higher summer bills.

PURA directed the company to use the resulting top-user spreadsheet to generate the hypothetical model for the late-file hearing, and to label the submission clearly as not an official company proposal but as a modeling exercise for the record.