Lawmakers to review storm guidelines
Current policy gives utilities up to 10 days to restore power
Eversource and United Illuminating restored power to customers after Tropical Storm Isaias within the time frame required by the state — the electric companies had up to 10 days to restore power.
Yet within just a few days of the storm tearing through the state, lawmakers, Gov. Ned Lamont and customers began complaining that power was out too long.
“The interesting part is they fall within the guidelines,” said state Sen. Norm Needleman, D-Essex and chairman of the energy and technology committee, referring to meeting restoration time frames established by the state’s emergency response plans.
Lawmakers now plan to look at those plans approved by the state Public Utility Regulatory Authority, with an eye on whether they allow utilities to employ less staff and rely too heavily on outside contractors during big storms.
“Are the guidelines correct — and in the best interest of customers or the company?” Needleman said. “The [power companies] have found a sweet spot that gives them all the leeway they need to have less local crews on their staff.”
The energy committee is also considering a sweeping reform bill to speed up power restoration and reimburse customers for losses. Hearings are scheduled for this week.
At the request of Lamont, PURA is already investigating the response to the tropical storm.
“PURA’s review of the restoration process will examine the full range of
factors that affected the [power company’s] preparation for and response to the storm,” said Taren O’Connor, a PURA spokeswoman.
“The reasonableness of the restoration periods will be determined through this process,” she added.
Ed Crowder, a spokesman for Avangrid, UI’s parent company, said the utility welcomes the PURA investigation. “We are open to a robust dialogue about how we can improve storm readiness and response, while mitigating the impact of major storms on customers,” Crowder said. “We expect to participate fully in the PURA storm investigation, and we will welcome any findings or recommendations that could help us improve our future performance.”
Emergency Response Plan
The restoration timelines were established in 2013 following two highly destructive storms in 2011 and Superstorm Sandy in 2012 that left millions without power, some for as long as 13 days.
Much like two weeks ago, lawmakers and customers complained about slow restoration during those storms. Northeast Utilities, now Eversource, bore the brunt of that criticism, mostly because it supplies power to more than 1.2 million customers statewide, while UI serves less than 350,000 customers in the Bridgeport and New Haven regions.
The state’s emergency response plans spell out how long it should take Eversource and UI to restore power during varying levels of storm and establishes staffing guidelines.
Eversource has five to 10 days to restore power during a Level 3 storm — the rating given to Isaias. Staffing during a warm weather Level 3 storm should reach between 1,500 and 2,500 linemen, tree cutters and other restoration workers.
UI has five to seven days for a Level 3 storm, a shorter time frame because of the utility’s smaller customer base and much smaller geographic territory.
The plan calls on UI to deploy between 300 and 450 workers during a Level 3 storm.
The utility companies met those timelines during the Isaias restoration.
UI substantially restored service by Aug. 11, seven days after the storm leveled trees and snapped power lines with more than 60 mph winds.
Eversource restored power to 99 percent of its customers by Aug. 12, eight days after the Aug. 4 storm.
O’Connor said PURA considers national industry standards and best practices in reviewing and approving emergency response plans.
“The ERPs provide an expected range for service restoration,” O’Connor said. “PURA uses ERPs as a reference when reviewing utility performance after storms. The ERPs are only one factor used to evaluate their performance.”
A PURA study earlier this year noted that while “the [power company] performance has been reasonable when compared against these guidelines, it is still worth considering whether the guidelines regarding expected restoration times and resource strategies remain adequate.”
Mitch Gross, an Eversource spokesman, said the power company did a better job restoring service after the recent tropical storm than past storms.
“We mobilized the largest restoration effort Connecticut has ever seen to get the power back on for every customer as fast as possible, and we understand the frustration that our customers and political leaders are feeling,” Gross said.
“Despite the damage being more severe than in Superstorm Sandy and Tropical Storm Irene, this restoration was completed 33 percent faster — Sandy was 12 days, Irene was 11, and Isaias was 8,” Gross said.
“All the leeway”
Needleman said the reality is the state’s response plans give power companies exactly what they want.
“They give them all the leeway in the world to wait until the cavalry comes — the contractors and mutual aid and everyone on the planet,” he said. “There is a lot of smoke and mirrors in that plan.”
Asked to comment, Gross did not directly address Needleman’s allegations.
“We will be fully participating in the upcoming reviews of all aspects of the storm, providing information on our preparation, response and lessons learned,” Gross said.
Both power companies rely on bringing in outside contractors and mutual aid agreements with other power companies to restore power during big storms.
Neither company has enough staff on hand to do the job, although some lawmakers are considering minimum staffing requirements to speed up restoration.
A Hearst Connecticut Media Group review of staffing at Eversource’s Connecticut subsidiary, Connecticut Light and Power, showed overall employment has dropped 27 percent since 2011.
In 2016, CL&P employed 529 line workers and craft workers, down from 674 in 2011 — a 21 percent decrease.
UI employed 233 line workers in 2011 compared to 221 in 2017, or five percent fewer.
Needleman said the energy committee is going to look at the response plan guidelines and the impact on staffing.
“I would argue that they could take 24 hours off, or days off, substantial restoration if they had more people,” Needleman said. “Are those guidelines the right guidelines? I don’t think so.”
The reform bill before the energy committee would force electric companies to cover the loss of food and medicine during prolonged outages and fine companies for poor performance.
The bill would also link electric rates to stockholder and executive compensation and set staffing requirements that would have to be covered by the utilities and not passed on to ratepayers.
The PURA study earlier this year concluded that staffing requirements could cost ratepayers millions in higher charges if utilities sought to recover the additional costs.