Connecticut Attorney General William Tong is bringing more pressure to bear on both Eversource and United Illuminating this afternoon, over the apparent shortcomings of their respective responses to Tropical Storm Isaias. The storm, which arrived last Tuesday, left hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents without power for days.
As of this writing, Eversource has not updated its list of outages since 7 a.m., when it said nearly 35,000 of its customers were still in the dark. United Illuminating updated its list just before 1 p.m., which saw an increase of outages from 208 to 245. Both utilities have said they plan for the vast majority of customers to have power restored by 11:59 p.m.
In a motion before the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), Tong repeated his demand ”“ first issued last Thursday and denied by PURA on Friday ”“ that the agency open a “contested case and prudence review.” Those are legal proceedings that would enable the attorney general to “make the strongest claims on behalf of ratepayers and the state; seek fines, penalties and injunctive relief; and oppose the utilities”™ requests for profits and reimbursement of storm-related costs,” according to a press release.
Failure by PURA to do so at the onset of the investigation could “set the stage for an endless series of related proceedings taking years to reach conclusion,” Tong said.
Separately, the attorney general today filed what he termed his first series of interrogatories as part of PURA”™s investigation, asking the companies for detailed information regarding their storm preparation and management.
“Consumers are justifiably outraged by the unacceptable response to this storm, and we are relying on PURA”™s investigation for answers and accountability,” Tong said. “After the 2011 storms, ratepayers invested millions of dollars in communications upgrades, tree trimming, and system resiliency to prevent exactly this kind of debacle. Why were Eversource and United Illuminating so woefully underprepared once again?
“They owe all of us a detailed explanation for their staffing policies, their weather forecasting, the models and simulations they used to test their IT systems, and more,” he continued. “PURA must clearly and unequivocally preserve all possible options to impose the strongest fines and penalties without delay. I will use the full weight of my authority throughout this investigation to hold Eversource and UI accountable for this stunning failure.”
In another development, state Sen. Tony Hwang (R-25th) and Newtown State delegation members will join Newtown First Selectman Dan Rosenthal at 10 a.m. tomorrow at that municipality”™s Edmond Town Hall. The group will call on Eversource to take immediate action to restore power to the remaining 30% of Newtown and Sandy Hook residents.
