Vermont Public · Abagael Giles · September 8, 2026
Regulators have approved a 5.5% rate increase for customers of Green Mountain Power, the state’s largest electric utility.
Ratepayers will see the increase on their bills starting in October.
GMP’s latest rate case sparked vigorous debate between utility leaders and the Public Utility Commission over who should pay for upgrades to Vermont’s aging electric grid so it can withstand climate change fueled storms.
The utility says it’s spending more than ever on repairs after disruptive storms, amounting to some $225 million over the last decade. It’s made big investments in recent years, with the goal of eliminating power outages altogether for its customers by 2030 . State regulators authorized the company to spend $150 million on this work in 2024.
In documents filed with the Public Utility Commission, GMP says those investments have proven fruitful. Along sections of the 100 miles of lines it has buried and roughly 90 miles it's reinforced in recent years, the company says its seen a 95% reduction in power outages during storms with high winds.
GMP this year requested a 7.5 percent rate hike, to help fund a $340 million effort to bury and harden more power lines over the next four years.
Ultimately the commission rejected that bid, capping GMP’s rate increase at 5.5% and its investments to about a third of what it proposed.
The commission sided with ratepayer advocates at the Vermont Department of Public Service, who argued that ratepayers could not afford to invest so much at one time.
More than 50 people wrote to the commission to oppose the increase, saying they could not afford to pay more for electricity than they do now.
“Vermonters are being squeezed from every direction,” wrote April Christensen. “Increases should be no more than current inflation which is supposedly under 3%.”
Others urged regulators to investigate the utility’s leadership’s salaries.
Green Mountain Power’s rate hike is just a fraction of what customers at municipal utilities across the state have contended with in recent years.
Earlier this year, Swanton Electric asked regulators for a 30% rate hike while its hydroelectric dam sits in disrepair. Meanwhile Barton Electric is seeking a 14% rate increase. Hyde Park Electric is seeking a 15% rate hike amid financial woes , and Jacksonville Electric has asked regulators for an 18% increase.
This trend, regulators say, is due to a host of factors affecting the cost of doing business in Vermont; namely healthcare and fuel costs, the latter of which have increased dramatically since the United States went to war with Iran, and, as GMP noted, climate change fueled storms.
Vermont utilities are not allowed to profit off of selling electricity to their customers, but they are allowed to earn revenue from infrastructure upgrades like the sort that bolster climate resilience — a dynamic highlighted in the rate case by regulators at the Department of Public Service.
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