POWER A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
Following outage, Grid wants to bill ratepayers $39M for tree-clearing
National Grid is pushing for $39 million from Bay State ratepayers for a “ground-to-sky clearing” of trees to help keep the lights on in what consumer advocates say is a slap in the face to frustrated homeowners left powerless for days this week following a severe storm.
That costly pitch is now making its way through state Department of Public Utilities hearings, where the attorney general’s office has joined the fight to cap rates.
“We cannot keep throwing money at these problems,” said Janet Domenitz, executive director of MassPIRG. “The utilities are supposed to be ready for these emergencies.”
Domenitz said Massachusetts already has some of the highest energy costs in the nation — it’s rated fourthhighest in a recent survey, behind Alaska, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
“I think they owe us refunds,” Domenitz added last night as she noted the warm weather.
National Grid’s multi-million-plan comes as downed trees, wind-swept limbs and broken poles have slowed clean-up crews for days, and several local officials have criticized the utility for not reacting quicker.
Ironically, it’s the type of problem DPU ordered the company to avoid when, in September 2016, it ordered the utility giant to create a pilot program to trim tree limbs near power lines, aimed at “further reducing tree-related incidents.”
The plan, DPU officials said, was to focus on the utility company’s 56 “worst performing” sections of power line. Eight of them feed electricity to Haverhill — the most of any community on the list — and four others serve Andover and North Andover, altogether three of the hardest-hit communities in this week’s recovery.
But more than a year later, the proposal is still working toward approval, and DPU officials said they expect to make a decision before April.
The proposal already features more than three-dozen filings, including from Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, the state’s ratepayer advocate who’s arguing against parts of it.
Added costs to the program would ultimately fall back on ratepayers, which National Grid estimated at 37 cents per month for an average customer.
“We’re going to have to pay more to deal with storms,” said Larry Chretien, executive director of the Mass Energy Consumer Alliance. “But obviously you don’t want to write a blank check.”
Healey’s office declined to comment on the case. National Grid spokesman Robert Kievra said the proposed pilot program would help “deliver additional benefits to system reliability and resiliency” but it would do little to stop uprooted trees, a problem crews battled this week.
“The storm this week was one of the most disruptive in recent history,” Kievra said.
Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini, whose city wasn’t slated to get full power back until late last night, said he’s been underwhelmed by National Grid’s performance.
“They (National Gird) have been in my office and have given me updates. But my constituents don’t want updates, they want electricity,” Fiorentini said. “We’re disappointed.”
Andrew W. Maylor — town manager for North Andover, which at one point was 96 percent without power — said National Grid and other utilities need to speed up their response to storms.
“They are not nimble,” Maylor said, “whether it’s nimble from a regulatory or modernization perspective or nimble in understanding the customers in response to this storm.”