In an unprecedented move, state regulators imposed nearly $25 million in fines Tuesday against three power companies for their response to two major storms last year, saying the utilities’ missteps had left thousands in the dark for days on end.
State officials levied the stiffest sanction, $18.7 million, on National Grid, citing “systematic and fundamental failures” in its preparation and response to Tropical Storm Irene and last October’s surprise snowstorm, which caused extensive damage to large swaths of the state.
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The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) periodically approves these utilities' rates -- what consumers must pay for electricity. Since DPU does not verify retrospectively that the money the utilities planned to invest to improve their infrastructure -- money DPU allows the utilities to recover from consumers in the rates DPU approves -- has in fact been spent for that purpose, the utilities can spend $24.8 million less than promised on infrastructure improvements to pay those "fines". Effectively we, the utilities' customers, will then have paid this "fine" in the form of reduced investments in an already under-maintained infrastructure. The only way to get National Grid, NStar, Western Mass Electric and Unitil to improve their service is for the Legislature to pass the Muni-Choice bill (http://massmunichoice.org) to end the large utilities' permanent monopoly and allow new municipal utilities in Massachusetts. Patrick Mehr Massachusetts Alliance for Municipal Electric Choice http://massmunichoice.org
While patrickmehr's post is valid and I support his views, that is a decades-long solution even if it's implemented. We need more immediate relief in the meantime and I hope the utilities will wake up. I'm served by National Grid, a British company that's very poorly managed. It needs major changes in the executive suite.
As a small example of mis-management at National Grid, they still send out separate bills for gas and electric service 6 years after taking over KeySpan (Boston Gas). Efficient management would have combined the bills long ago.
I'd be more encouraged if the utilities apologized and promised to do better in the future. Appealing the fines and claiming innocence is not a good sign.
The state adds to its coffers by levying fines. Is this money going to be directed to reimburse cities and towns for expenses incurred because of power outages. Like police, fire and public works overtime? The loss of food in school cafeterias? The cost of running shelters for those without power?
The state doesn't get the money from the fines, according to the story. The money will be returned to the ratepayers, probably via credits in their bills.
"Troipcal Storm Irene didn't impact Western Mass"? http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/08/power_outages_many_western_mas.html
Why bother, the power companies will only pass the cost on to its users. We all wind up paying one way or another.
The impact of a major storm on the power grid could be substantially reduced with more distributed generation. For example, if most homes and businesses had solar panels on their roofs, they would have enough power during the day to run cash registers, charge batteries and cell phones, provide some emergency lighting, check the news, and run fossil fuel-powered heating systems that require small amounts of electricity.
Another way to provide ample local backup power would be to more widely adopt Micro Combined Heat and Power generators. These can be more efficient than central generation because while heating a building by burning natural gas, propane, or oil, they simultaneously generate electricity. They can also be set up to operate as emergency generators, providing most or all of the power a building would normally use, at any time of day.
If we do want to make centrally-generated power more reliable, we should allocate some ratepayer dollars for undergrounding power lines. More expensive as that might be, I would like to see it happen in populated areas if only because above-ground lines are just so ugly.