Eversource 2015 Annual Report Download - page 65

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REPORT OF INDEPENDENT REGISTERED PUBLIC ACCOUNTING FIRM
To the Board of Trustees and Shareholders of Eversource Energy:
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Eversource Energy and subsidiaries (the “Company”) as of December 31, 2015
and 2014, and the related consolidated statements of income, comprehensive income, common shareholders’ equity, and cash flows for each of the
three years in the period ended December 31, 2015. Our audits also included the financial statement schedules listed in the Index at Item 15 of Part
IV. We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2015, based on criteria established in Internal
Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. The Company’s
management is responsible for these financial statements and financial statement schedules, for maintaining effective internal control over financial
reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Company Report on
Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements and financial statement
schedules and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States). Those standards
require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement
and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects. Our audits of the financial statements included
examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements, assessing the accounting principles used and
significant estimates made by management, and evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. Our audit of internal control over financial
reporting included obtaining an understanding of internal control over financial reporting, assessing the risk that a material weakness exists, testing
and evaluating the design and operating effectiveness of internal control based on the assessed risk. Our audits also included performing such other
procedures as we considered necessary in the circumstances. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinions.
A company’s internal control over financial reporting is a process designed by, or under the supervision of, the company’s principal executive and
principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, and effected by the company’s board of directors, management, and other
personnel to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external
purposes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. A company’s internal control over financial reporting includes those policies
and procedures that (1) pertain to the maintenance of records that, in reasonable detail, accurately and fairly reflect the transactions and dispositions
of the assets of the company; (2) provide reasonable assurance that transactions are recorded as necessary to permit preparation of financial
statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and that receipts and expenditures of the company are being made only in
accordance with authorizations of management and directors of the company; and (3) provide reasonable assurance regarding prevention or timely
detection of unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition of the company’s assets that could have a material effect on the financial statements.
Because of the inherent limitations of internal control over financial reporting, including the possibility of collusion or improper management
override of controls, material misstatements due to error or fraud may not be prevented or detected on a timely basis. Also, projections of any
evaluation of the effectiveness of the internal control over financial reporting to future periods are subject to the risk that the controls may become
inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with the policies or procedures may deteriorate.
In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Eversource
Energy and subsidiaries as of December 31, 2015 and 2014, and the results of their operations and their cash flows for each of the three years in the
period ended December 31, 2015, in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America. Also, in our opinion,
such financial statement schedules, when considered in relation to the basic consolidated financial statements taken as a whole, present fairly, in all
material respects, the information set forth therein. Also, in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control
over financial reporting as of December 31, 2015, based on the criteria established in Internal Control — Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the
Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.
/s/ Deloitte & Touche LLP
Hartford, Connecticut
February 26, 2016