Eversource Faces Heavy Fine for Isaias Response

The two non-municipal Connecticut electric utilities have been assessed millions of dollars in fines by the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) stemming from their response to Tropical Storm Isaias.  Eversource in particular seemed like it got singled out – the company was fined a whopping $28.5 million and United Illuminating (UI) was fined $1.2 million.

Why PURA Levied Such a Large Fine on Eversource

PURA conducted an 8-month investigation to dig into the root cause of the perceived failure.  The penalties for both companies were based mainly on a failure to comply with performance standards under Connecticut’s General Statutes Title 16.  Specifically, the utilities were dinged for not deploying enough crews and for not complying with reporting requirements.

The question that comes to my mind is whether the fines are justified.  I mean, Isaias was an absolute beast of a storm, featuring 85 MPH sustained winds that knocked out power for 740,000 Connecticut residents, roughly half of the population.

The main lesson learned is that emergency preparedness must incorporate regulatory perception into the framework.  It’s no longer good enough to manage outage restoration, utilities must also manage regulatory perception.  And as you can tell, this is a very important – and expensive – lesson.