It All Depends On Your Point of View

Depending on who you ask and what state you’re talking about, the perception of the utility industry’s restoration efforts following Tropical Storm Isaias have been all over the board.  Even within a single state, conflicting views abound.  One example is the state of Connecticut.

Yin and Yang of the Tropical Storm Isaias Restoration in Connecticut

Connecticut’s electric utilities – Eversource and United Illuminating (UI) – were on the wrong end of some complaining even though they successfully restored power within the timeframe mandated by the state.  These timelines were submitted to, and approved by, the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) several years ago as part of each company’s emergency plan.

Following Superstorm Sandy, in which some people were out of power for 13 days, both utilities submitted plans to PURA that defined restoration timeframes and staffing guidelines.  For a “Level 3” storm (the same rating given to Tropical Storm Isaias), Eversource has up to 10 days to restore everybody, and UI has up to seven days. 

After Isaias, the CT utilities launched the “largest restoration effort Connecticut has ever seen,” which in my estimation was very successful.  UI substantially restored service within 7 days and Eversource restored service to 99% of its customers within 8 days.  Both of these restoration durations are obviously within the guidelines previously approved, and represent an approximate 33% improvement compared to Sandy.

Unfortunately, Governor Ned Lamont has a different view.  He seems to want to attack the utilities, and actually said that their response plans contain “a lot of smoke and mirrors.”  Ouch.

Thanks to the Gov’s criticism, the previously-approved restoration timelines are now being revisited.  Officials are also considering requiring that utilities cover the cost of spoiled food and medicine.  In addition, minimum staffing-level requirements, to reduce the use of outside contractors, is being examined (I guess they don’t realize this would cost ratepayers millions of dollars?).

As of last week,  CT Governor Ned Lamont signed House Bill 7006: An Act Concerning Emergency Response by Electric Distribution Companies, the Regulation of Other Public Utilities and Nexus Provisions for Certain Disaster-Related or Emergency-Related Work Performed in the State.  The “Take Back Our Grid Act” looks to place limits on energy rate hikes and allows reimbursement to consumers who lose food or medicine due to extended outages. It would require customers to be given a $25 account credit/per day and $250 for any food and medication that spoils during an outage that lasts more than 96 hours (4 days).