NH Consumer Protection calls for investigation of NHEC

State Consumer Protection Commissioner Donald Kreis has requested an investigation into New Hampshire Electric Co-op, citing problems on the board and concerns about the company’s electricity purchasing practices. In a letter to the Public Utilities Commission, Kreis cited two resignations allegedly tied to sexism. “I am very, very concerned about these allegations,” Kreis said. “Electric Co-op is a unique utility in which the members, the customers and the utility owners are the same people. Because of this, they are not subject to the same regulatory scrutiny as other utilities. But that assumes that the governing body of the co-op is functioning in a healthy way so that the people elected by the co-op’s members to run their organization can do their jobs and not feel like they have to quit.” He also raised concerns about a discussion at Tuesday’s board meeting in which Chairman William Darcy reportedly advocated so-called spot purchases of electricity, in which electricity is purchased in real time on the wholesale market. Kreis said that while the purchases could provide short-term savings, they could also lead to situations similar to the one Texas experienced in 2021 if there is an extended grid outage. News 9 has reached out to NHEC for comment but has not received a response.