Albany Approves Major Central Hudson Rate Hikes as Profits Double Over Decade
Local gas and electric bills are about to rise, as are Central Hudson shareholder earnings.
Central Hudson proffits over the past decade as reported by the Renewable Heat Now campaign
On August 14, New York State regulators approved another round of rate hikes for Central Hudson Gas & Electric, the sole utility option for most communities in Dutchess County and many in Columbia County. Consumers will see their electric bill increase by 16 percent and their gas bill rise by 24 percent over the next three years.
In response, a new analysis from national energy watchdog Sunstone Strategies and Assembly member Sarahana Shestha was released, criticizing the controversy-plagued company for raising rates when the utility’s profits have doubled over the past decade. For advocates, the timing underscores what they see as a widening disconnect between the company’s financial success and the economic strain facing its customers.
The figures, released by the Renewable Heat Now campaign, show Central Hudson earned a record $90.5 million in 2024—a 19.6 percent increase over the previous year and twice what it brought in a decade earlier. The Public Service Commission’s (PSC) decision will allow the company to collect an additional $143.7 million over the next three years. By the end of the period, the average residential customer can expect to pay about $50 more per month.
“With 16 percent of Central Hudson’s customers in arrears, this is not the time to increase electric and gas rates in order to increase return on equity for shareholders and give millions of dollars in bonuses to executives,” says Anna Markowitz, executive director for Communities for Local Power. “Communities for Local Power is disappointed with the PSC’s vote today. New York State needs to do better to protect residents who are already burdened by inflation and federal cuts to our support systems.”
The Utility’s Case for Increases
Central Hudson and the PSC point to aging infrastructure, new climate mandates, and grid modernization as central drivers of the increase. The utility says roughly 20 percent of its electric system is at the end of its useful life and requires replacement to ensure reliability and safety. Funds from the rate plan, according to company filings, will also support cybersecurity upgrades, expansion of clean energy integration—such as accommodating more solar, heat pumps, and electric vehicle charging—and compliance with the state’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
PSC Chair Rory Christian has described the agreement as meeting the commission’s legal responsibility to ensure, “safe and adequate service at just and reasonable rates,” noting that regulators reduced Central Hudson’s original request and added consumer protections, including expanded enrollment in the Energy Affordability Program and enhanced reliability and safety performance metrics.
Affordability Gaps and Local Pushback
Even with those safeguards, the rate hike is landing in a region already struggling with utility costs. As of April, more than 50,000 households—about one in six Central Hudson customers—were at least two months behind on their bills. Yet only five percent of customers are enrolled in the affordability program designed to help.
The gap has fueled political backlash. In Kingston, lawmakers have endorsed a proposal for a public takeover of the utility. Assemblymember Sarahana Shrestha, whose district is entirely within Central Hudson’s service area, said the PSC’s process itself is part of the problem.
“As was made abundantly clear by today’s discussion of the Central Hudson rate case at the PSC meeting, the commission’s mandate to ensure just and reasonable rates does not mean the rates are just and reasonable primarily for the customers,” Shrestha says. “It must first mean ‘fairness to investors,’ a consideration that was cited as one of the reasons decision-makers present at the meeting were in favor of the Joint Proposal that once again increases the rates for consumers.”
Shrestha noted that some commissioners argued voting “no” would be worse for ratepayers, because the rates would default to Central Hudson’s initial, higher proposal. “This shows the limits of the process that ultimately does not work in favor of ratepayers,” she says. “And if tweaks and reforms aren’t enough to keep rates low for customers, we must arrive at the logical conclusion that to ensure lowest rates possible, and a reliable and safe service, we need to remove investors from the picture altogether, and make Central Hudson a publicly owned utility, which is why I’ve introduced a bill to do exactly that.”
The PSC maintains that negotiated rate plans balance consumer impacts with the investments necessary to keep service reliable and to transition toward a cleaner energy system.
For now, the decision to raise rates sets two parallel realities in motion: A decade of steady growth for Central Hudson’s balance sheet, and a rising monthly bill for thousands of Mid-Hudson Valley households already struggling to keep up.
