CL&P takes hit from PURA over storms response

The CT Mirror ^

[matt04]

Utility regulators concluded in a draft decision Tuesday that Connecticut Light & Power was "deficient and inadequate" in its preparation and response to the two storms that caused prolonged blackouts last year.

The report by the Public Utility Regulatory Authority says the state's largest power company should face unspecified financial sanctions "as a penalty for poor management performance and to provide incentives for improvement."

CL&P was unsure if it will seek changes in the report before it is formally adopted by the authority Aug. 1.

...

The draft released late Tuesday afternoon followed the tone set by two earlier reviews of how the subsidiary of Northeast Utilities handled damaged caused by Storm Irene on August 28 and the freak snowstorm of Oct. 29.

Each storm caused peak outages to more than 800,000 customers of CL&P and the smaller United Illuminating Company, with some areas blacked out for 12 days.

The report addressed the performance of electric, cable television, telecommunications, gas and water companies, but CL&P and its parent, NU, bore the brunt of criticism.

"Last year's storms were a nightmare for Connecticut residents, and the response from Northeast Utilities was unacceptable," Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said. "Today, PURA is echoing the earlier findings of the Two Storm Panel, the Witt report, and hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents who experienced extended power outages after each storm."

Witt Associates, a consulting firm led by former Federal Emergency Management Agency Director James Lee Witt, analyzed of how both of Connecticut's major electric utilities, CL&P and United Illuminating, handled last weekend's Nor'easter and the resulting damage. A second group commissioned by Malloy studied the overall response emergency agencies and the utilities to both storms.

[matt04]

As someone who had no power for 9 days following the October snow storm, I believe CL&P did a good job overall. Catastrophic damage was done to the infrastructure in NJ, NY, CT, MA and RI. In my area, they did not repair the grid, but rebuilt it from the ground up for several miles in cases. That does not happen over night.

All Malloy did was stand around and blame CL&P for a once in a 100 year event.

[Drill Thrawl]

Disgusting, just disgusting. Seems like it would be a good time for CL&P to skuttle the plants and go Galt.

[Socon-Econ]

Leftist zones like Connecticut, Maryland, and the District of Columbia make it difficult for utilities to cut down the trees causing the damage and then blame the utilities when the lights go out. Their politicians seem to believe that the problem is caused by the utilities sitting on big piles of money that they are not using to stop outages. And the utility executives feel they have to grovel before grandstanding politicians rather than tell them the truth.