Our History
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (NHPUC) has its origins in an 1838 statute that provided for appointment of commissioners in each New Hampshire County having limited powers regarding railroads. This was the first attempt by any state to regulate transportation. The County boards were consolidated into a State Board of Railroad Commissioners in 1844, the first such board in the nation.
In 1911, the New Hampshire Legislature enacted comprehensive legislation which instituted a new system for the establishment and regulation of public utilities and railroads in the state. As a result, the Public Service Commission was created as a state tribunal and given broad supervisory and regulatory powers over public utilities. The name Public Service Commission was changed in 1951 to Public Utilities Commission, its present title. In 1979, the Legislature made the commissioners full-time positions and generally amended the structure and guidelines of the Commission.
On June 26, 1985, Governor John Sununu established the Department of Transportation (DOT) to which the Commission's transportation functions were transferred. The statutory definition of public utility in RSA 362:2 was changed to exclude railroads, passenger carriers, toll bridges, toll roads, carriers of household goods for hire by motor vehicle and motor vehicles carrying property for hire.
Various amendments to RSA 363 in the 1980s removed the Office of the Consumer Advocate (OCA) from the direct control of the Commission and made it independent of the Commission except for shared use of business office and support functions.
In 1996, the legislature enacted RSA 374-F which initiated the restructuring of the electric utility industry in New Hampshire. The goal of restructuring was to reduce cost and harness the power of a competitive world by introducing customer choice to the power supply segment of the electric industry. Restructuring was completed in 2018 with Eversource selling its last generation plants in New Hampshire. Following restructuring, the State has seen the introduction of competitive energy suppliers and aggregators.
A major development over the last twenty-five years in the New England electric industry has been the creation of the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO-NE) in 1997 that launched wholesale electric markets to expand competition in regional generation and sales of wholesale electricity in 1999. ISO-NE later became a regional transmission organization (RTO) in 2005, expanding its authority over regional transmission and independence in running wholesale electricity markets. The NHPUC has previously represented the interest of NH citizens in regional electric matters before ISO-NE, NEPOOL and FERC to ensure that the benefits of the New England region-wide restructuring flow appropriately to the state’s citizens.
With new development of renewable energy resources in New Hampshire and New England, and the implementation of renewable portfolio standard (RPS) statutes, the Commission created a Sustainable Energy Division in 2008 to administer the Renewable Energy Fund and facilitate certification of new renewable resources and produce and trade Renewable Energy Certificates.
In 2021, the New Hampshire’s utility regulation framework underwent a significant transformation. Erstwhile NHPUC was split into the Department of Energy (DOE) and NHPUC beginning July 1, 2021, following the passage of House Bill HB2. The reorganization is designed to separate utility adjudicative functions from energy policy functions. To achieve that separation, the NHPUC has been assigned responsibility for all utility adjudications, including rate cases, rate adjustments, and utility system planning. The DOE is now responsible for energy policy functions, including supervising the sustainable energy division, and promoting New Hampshire energy policy in various regional energy forums.