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Cover and table of contents

10-K 1 a201710kdocument.htm 2017 10-K




	UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549 FORM 10-K
x	ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
	For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2017 or
¨	TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
	For the transition period from ____________ to ____________



Commission File Number	Registrant; State of Incorporation; Address; and Telephone Number	I.R.S. Employer Identification No.

1-5324	EVERSOURCE ENERGY (a Massachusetts voluntary association) 300 Cadwell Drive Springfield, Massachusetts 01104 Telephone: (800) 286-5000	04-2147929

0-00404	THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY (a Connecticut corporation) 107 Selden Street Berlin, Connecticut 06037-1616 Telephone: (800) 286-5000	06-0303850

1-02301	NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY (a Massachusetts corporation) 800 Boylston Street Boston, Massachusetts 02199 Telephone: (800) 286-5000	04-1278810

1-6392	PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE (a New Hampshire corporation) Energy Park 780 North Commercial Street Manchester, New Hampshire 03101-1134 Telephone: (800) 286-5000	02-0181050

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:



Registrant	Title of Each Class	Name of Each Exchange on Which Registered

Eversource Energy	Common Shares, $5.00 par value	New York Stock Exchange, Inc.

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:



Registrant	Title of Each Class

The Connecticut Light and Power Company	Preferred Stock, par value $50.00 per share, issuable in series, of which the following series are outstanding:
		$1.90 $2.00 $2.04 $2.20 3.90% $2.06 $2.09 4.50% 4.96% 4.50% 5.28% $3.24 6.56%	Series Series Series Series Series Series E Series F Series Series Series Series Series G Series	of 1947 of 1947 of 1949 of 1949 of 1949 of 1954 of 1955 of 1956 of 1958 of 1963 of 1967 of 1968 of 1968

NSTAR Electric Company	Preferred Stock, par value $100.00 per share, issuable in series, of which the following series are outstanding:
		4.25% 4.78%	Series Series	of 1956 of 1958

NSTAR Electric Company and Public Service Company of New Hampshire each meet the conditions set forth in General Instruction I(1)(a) and (b) of Form 10-K, and each is therefore filing this Form 10-K with the reduced disclosure format specified in General Instruction I(2) of Form 10‑K.

Indicate by check mark if the registrants are well-known seasoned issuers, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act.



	Yes	No
	x	¨

Indicate by check mark if the registrants are not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act.



	Yes	No
	¨	x

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants (1) have filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrants were required to file such reports), and (2) have been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.



	Yes	No
	x	¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants have submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web sites, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrants were required to submit and post such files).



	Yes	No
	x	¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of the registrants' knowledge, in definitive proxy or information statements incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):



	Large accelerated filer	Accelerated filer	Non-accelerated filer	Smaller reporting company	Emerging growth company

Eversource Energy	x	¨	¨	¨	¨
The Connecticut Light and Power Company	¨	¨	x	¨	¨
NSTAR Electric Company	¨	¨	x	¨	¨
Public Service Company of New Hampshire	¨	¨	x	¨	¨

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrants are shell companies (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act):



	Yes	No
Eversource Energy	¨	x
The Connecticut Light and Power Company	¨	x
NSTAR Electric Company	¨	x
Public Service Company of New Hampshire	¨	x

The aggregate market value of Eversource Energy's Common Shares, $5.00 par value, held by non-affiliates, computed by reference to the price at which the common equity was last sold, or the average bid and asked price of such common equity, as of the last business day of Eversource Energy's most recently completed second fiscal quarter (June 30, 2017) was $19,210,596,737 based on a closing market price of $60.71 per share for the 316,432,165 common shares outstanding held by non-affiliates on June 30, 2017.

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuers' classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date:



Company - Class of Stock	Outstanding as of January 31, 2018
Eversource Energy Common Shares, $5.00 par value	316,885,808 shares

The Connecticut Light and Power Company Common Stock, $10.00 par value	6,035,205 shares

NSTAR Electric Company Common Stock, $1.00 par value	200 shares

Public Service Company of New Hampshire Common Stock, $1.00 par value	301 shares

Eversource Energy holds all of the 6,035,205 shares, 200 shares and 301 shares of the outstanding common stock of The Connecticut Light and Power Company, NSTAR Electric Company and Public Service Company of New Hampshire, respectively.

Eversource Energy, The Connecticut Light and Power Company, NSTAR Electric Company and Public Service Company of New Hampshire each separately file this combined Form 10-K. Information contained herein relating to any individual registrant is filed by such registrant on its own behalf. Each registrant makes no representation as to information relating to the other registrants.

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

The following is a glossary of abbreviations and acronyms that are found in this report:



Current or former Eversource Energy companies, segments or investments:
Eversource, ES or the Company	Eversource Energy and subsidiaries
Eversource parent or ES parent	Eversource Energy, a public utility holding company
ES parent and other companies	ES parent and other companies are comprised of Eversource parent, Eversource Service and other subsidiaries, which primarily includes our unregulated businesses, HWP Company, The Rocky River Realty Company (a real estate subsidiary), and the consolidated operations of CYAPC and YAEC, and Aquarion's water business from the date of acquisition on December 4, 2017 through December 31, 2017
CL&P	The Connecticut Light and Power Company
NSTAR Electric	NSTAR Electric Company
PSNH	Public Service Company of New Hampshire
NSTAR Gas	NSTAR Gas Company
Yankee Gas	Yankee Gas Services Company
Aquarion	Eversource Aquarion Holdings, Inc and its subsidiaries (formerly known as Macquarie Utilities Inc)
NPT	Northern Pass Transmission LLC
Northern Pass	The HVDC and associated alternating-current transmission line project from Canada into New Hampshire
Eversource Service	Eversource Energy Service Company
Bay State Wind	A project being developed jointly by Eversource and Denmark-based Ørsted (formerly known as DONG Energy) to construct an offshore wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts
CYAPC	Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company
MYAPC	Maine Yankee Atomic Power Company
YAEC	Yankee Atomic Electric Company
Yankee Companies	CYAPC, YAEC and MYAPC
Electric and Natural Gas Companies	The Eversource electric and natural gas companies are comprised of the electric distribution and transmission businesses of CL&P, NSTAR Electric and PSNH, the natural gas distribution businesses of Yankee Gas and NSTAR Gas, NPT, the generation facilities of PSNH, and the solar power facilities of NSTAR Electric
Regulators:
DEEP	Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection
DOE	U.S. Department of Energy
DOER	Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources
DPU	Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities
EPA	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
FERC	Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
ISO-NE	ISO New England, Inc., the New England Independent System Operator
MA DEP	Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
NHPUC	New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission
PURA	Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority
SEC	U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
SJC	Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts
Other Terms and Abbreviations:
Access Northeast	A project being developed jointly by Eversource, Enbridge, Inc. ("Enbridge"), and National Grid plc ("National Grid") through Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC to bring needed additional natural gas pipeline and storage capacity to New England.
ADIT	Accumulated Deferred Income Taxes
AFUDC	Allowance For Funds Used During Construction
AOCL	Accumulated Other Comprehensive Loss
ARO	Asset Retirement Obligation
Bcf	Billion cubic feet
C&LM	Conservation and Load Management
CfD	Contract for Differences
Clean Air Project	The construction of a wet flue gas desulphurization system, known as "scrubber technology," to reduce mercury emissions of the Merrimack coal-fired generation station in Bow, New Hampshire
CO2	Carbon dioxide
CPSL	Capital Projects Scheduling List
CTA	Competitive Transition Assessment
CWIP	Construction Work in Progress
EDC	Electric distribution company
EPS	Earnings Per Share
ERISA	Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974



ESOP	Employee Stock Ownership Plan
ESPP	Employee Share Purchase Plan
Eversource 2016 Form 10-K	The Eversource Energy and Subsidiaries 2016 combined Annual Report on Form 10-K as filed with the SEC
Fitch	Fitch Ratings
FMCC	Federally Mandated Congestion Charge
FTR	Financial Transmission Rights
GAAP	Accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America
GSC	Generation Service Charge
GSRP	Greater Springfield Reliability Project
GWh	Gigawatt-Hours
HQ	Hydro-Québec, a corporation wholly-owned by the Québec government, including its divisions that produce, transmit and distribute electricity in Québec, Canada
HVDC	High-voltage direct current
Hydro Renewable Energy	Hydro Renewable Energy, Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hydro-Québec
IPP	Independent Power Producers
ISO-NE Tariff	ISO-NE FERC Transmission, Markets and Services Tariff
kV	Kilovolt
kVa	Kilovolt-ampere
kW	Kilowatt (equal to one thousand watts)
kWh	Kilowatt-Hours (the basic unit of electricity energy equal to one kilowatt of power supplied for one hour)
LBR	Lost Base Revenue
LNG	Liquefied natural gas
LRS	Supplier of last resort service
MMcf	Million cubic feet
MGP	Manufactured Gas Plant
MMBtu	One million British thermal units
Moody's	Moody's Investors Services, Inc.
MW	Megawatt
MWh	Megawatt-Hours
NEEWS	New England East-West Solution
NETOs	New England Transmission Owners (including Eversource, National Grid and Avangrid)
NOx	Nitrogen oxides
OCI	Other Comprehensive Income/(Loss)
PAM	Pension and PBOP Rate Adjustment Mechanism
PBOP	Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pension
PBOP Plan	Postretirement Benefits Other Than Pension Plan that provides certain retiree benefits, primarily medical, dental and life insurance
PCRBs	Pollution Control Revenue Bonds
Pension Plan	Single uniform noncontributory defined benefit retirement plan
PPA	Pension Protection Act
RECs	Renewable Energy Certificates
Regulatory ROE	The average cost of capital method for calculating the return on equity related to the distribution and generation business segment excluding the wholesale transmission segment
RNS	Regional Network Service
ROE	Return on Equity
RRB	Rate Reduction Bond or Rate Reduction Certificate
RSUs	Restricted share units
S&P	Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC
SBC	Systems Benefits Charge
SCRC	Stranded Cost Recovery Charge
SERP	Supplemental Executive Retirement Plans and non-qualified defined benefit retirement plans
SIP	Simplified Incentive Plan
SO2	Sulfur dioxide
SS	Standard service
TCAM	Transmission Cost Adjustment Mechanism
TSA	Transmission Service Agreement
UI	The United Illuminating Company

EVERSOURCE ENERGY AND SUBSIDIARIES

THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARY

PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND SUBSIDIARY

2017 FORM 10-K ANNUAL REPORT

TABLE OF CONTENTS



		Page
PART I
Item 1.	Business	2
Item 1A.	Risk Factors	17
Item 1B.	Unresolved Staff Comments	20
Item 2.	Properties	21
Item 3.	Legal Proceedings	23
Item 4.	Mine Safety Disclosures	24

PART II
Item 5.	Market for the Registrants’ Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities	27
Item 6.	Selected Consolidated Financial Data	29
Item 7.	Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations	30
Item 7A.	Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk	63
Item 8.	Financial Statements and Supplementary Data	64
Item 9.	Changes in and Disagreements with Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure	139
Item 9A.	Controls and Procedures	139
Item 9B.	Other Information	139

PART III
Item 10.	Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance	140
Item 11.	Executive Compensation	143
Item 12.	Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters	167
Item 13.	Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence	168
Item 14.	Principal Accountant Fees and Services	169

PART IV
Item 15.	Exhibits and Financial Statement Schedules	170
Item 16.	Form 10-K Summary	170
Signatures		171

iii

EVERSOURCE ENERGY AND SUBSIDIARIES

THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARY

PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND SUBSIDIARY

SAFE HARBOR STATEMENT UNDER THE PRIVATE SECURITIES

LITIGATION REFORM ACT OF 1995

References in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to "Eversource," the "Company," "we," "our," and "us" refer to Eversource Energy and its consolidated subsidiaries. CL&P, NSTAR Electric, and PSNH are each doing business as Eversource Energy.

From time to time, we make statements concerning our expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, goals, strategies, assumptions of future events, future financial performance or growth and other statements that are not historical facts. These statements are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can generally identify our forward-looking statements through the use of words or phrases such as "estimate," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "project," "believe," "forecast," "should," "could," and other similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are based on the current expectations, estimates, assumptions or projections of management and are not guarantees of future performance. These expectations, estimates, assumptions or projections may vary materially from actual results. Accordingly, any such statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to, and are accompanied by, the following important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those contained in our forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to:


•	cyber breaches and other disruptions to our information technology system that may compromise the confidentiality of our proprietary information and the personal information of our customers,


•	acts of war, terrorism or grid disturbances that may disrupt our transmission and distribution systems,


•	ability or inability to successfully commence and complete our major strategic development opportunities,


•	actions or inaction of local, state and federal regulatory, public policy and taxing bodies,


•	changes in business conditions, which could include disruptive technology related to our current or future business model,


•	changes in economic conditions, including impact on interest rates, tax policies, and customer demand and payment ability,


•	fluctuations in weather patterns, including extreme weather due to climate change,


•	changes in laws, regulations or regulatory policy,


•	changes in levels or timing of capital expenditures,


•	disruptions in the capital markets or other events that make our access to necessary capital more difficult or costly,


•	developments in legal or public policy doctrines,


•	technological developments and alternative energy sources,


•	changes in accounting standards and financial reporting regulations,


•	actions of rating agencies, and


•	other presently unknown or unforeseen factors.

Other risk factors are detailed in our reports filed with the SEC and updated as necessary, and we encourage you to consult such disclosures.

All such factors are difficult to predict and contain uncertainties that may materially affect our actual results, many of which are beyond our control. You should not place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements, as each speaks only as of the date on which such statement is made, and, except as required by federal securities laws, we undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date on which such statement is made or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. New factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for us to predict all of such factors, nor can we assess the impact of each such factor on the business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. For more information, see Item 1A, Risk Factors, included in this combined Annual Report on Form 10-K. This Annual Report on Form 10-K also describes material contingencies and critical accounting policies in the accompanying Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations and Combined Notes to Financial Statements. We encourage you to review these items.

EVERSOURCE ENERGY AND SUBSIDIARIES

THE CONNECTICUT LIGHT AND POWER COMPANY

NSTAR ELECTRIC COMPANY AND SUBSIDIARY

PUBLIC SERVICE COMPANY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND SUBSIDIARY

PART I

Next: Item 1. Business