Tag: cl&p

LIPA And CL&P: Where Have I Heard These Excuses Before

It was early November 2011 and Connecticut was fuming.

“The closer we got to CL&P’s self-identified goal of 99% restoration in each city and town by midnight tonight, the more skeptical I became of their ability to meet that goal,” said Gov. Malloy. “It’s now clear they are not going to meet their goal.” – Press Release

You remember: Two storms, Irene and the Halloween Snowstorm had shown dependability not to be a top priority for Connecticut’s largest power company, CL&P.

Flash forward to November 2012. Now the scene is Long Island and CL&P’s evil twin LIPA is being examined.

From the New York Daily News:

“We paid them and we gave them a franchise because they represented themselves as expert in doing this,” [Governor Andrew] Cuomo said. “They failed.”

You can close your eyes and hear Governor Malloy say those same words, can’t you?

Granted, Long Island’s brush with Hurricane Sandy was more severe than our run-ins with Irene and the early snow, still there are haunting similarities. Again, from the Daily News:

By LIPA’s own assessment, the tree-trim program “doesn’t meet” expectations. In fact, LIPA fell short of its planned tree-trim work in six of the first nine months of this year.

A LIPA rep did not have an immediate comment.

When cutting corners leads to larger profits and management bonuses, corners will be cut! If insufficient tree trimming is an every 15 or 20 year problem and you’re only the CEO for 5 or 10 years the risk seems worthwhile… for you, not your customers.

This is a failure of business and government. The experts in charge didn’t do what they should have done. The regulators let them get away with it. Regulators are supposed to be our backstop.

Is this problem endemic to America’s power grid? I hope not, but I have no reassurance it isn’t and I’m not particularly optimistic.

How To Explain What’s Going On In Connecticut To Your Friends

The article is a scathing indictment of a company that’s put their customers last! It’s a must read for everyone in Connecticut and anyone who’s wondering what’s going on here.

As I type 294,496 of CL&P’s customers, nearly one in four, are still without electricity from a storm that hit six days ago! That’s crazy.

If you’re still without power I commend you for maintaining your sanity. As you’ve found, dark comes early this time of year. Nights get cold quickly. Unheated homes have seen their inside temperatures fall into the 40s.

When TV or newspapers show natural disasters they often position the cameras for maximum effect. That’s not necessary here. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of places around the state that look (or looked) like we’ve been through a battle!

But why so long to get the juice flowing? So far the best set of explanations I’ve read comes from Reuters’ Rob Cox writing on BreakingViews.com

[G]iving Northeast, specifically its Connecticut Light & Power subsidiary, a pass is like absolving Lehman Brothers of any blame for its demise in 2008. Like financial firms, utilities need to manage risks. And they have it relatively easy: much of the task simply involves clearing overhanging trees and other hazards from power lines.

Yet according to regulatory filings, CL&P slashed its maintenance spending by a whopping 26 percent from $130 million in 2008 to just $96.5 million last year. Put simply, that meant one in every four trees that could have been trimmed was left hanging, though the company says the maintenance line was depressed by a deferral of expenses for financial accounting purposes.

He goes on to contrast CL&P’s performance with that of Norwich Public Utilities, owned by the city of Norwich.

[I]t surely also helps that Norwich Public Utilities’ general manager, 12 linemen and five commissioners live in the community, drive the local roads, see the overhanging branches and bump into their customers at the Norwich town Mall

The article is a scathing indictment of a company that’s put their customers last! It’s a must read for everyone in Connecticut and anyone who’s wondering what’s going on here.

When I first came to Connecticut my phone company, bank and electric company were all local. No more. Who benefited? Not me.

Like A Weight Has Been Lifted

Somewhere in this state (where I don’t know) there’s a pool where people are guessing how long Jeffrey Butler will remain as CL&P’s head guy.

Slowly… very slowly I see the power coming back on in Connecticut. I see it at work. One of our reporters tweeted her joy when she discovered her apartment had lights again. Being powerless is much more depressing than you can imagine. It only seems romantic in the abstract!

My co-worker Rachel Frank has been without electricity since Saturday. She lives in an apartment building on a main street. That’s where you’d expect the power restored first!

She’s usually perky. Not today.

I’m seeing a great deal of anger from people rendered powerless. They’re wondering who’s looking out for them? Did CL&P make decisions based solely on shareholder equity without considering ratepayer safety?

Somewhere in this state (where I don’t know) there’s a pool where people are guessing how long Jeffrey Butler will remain as CL&P’s head guy. He has shown little contrition. He seems tone deaf.

In our newsroom there’s a pool which will be won by the person who gets their lights last. The loser is the winner!

When Mr Butler spoke today I think he intended to apologize to his customers. I don’t think he actually did.

CL&P Blames The Weatherman

Business decisions are made every day. You hope the corners cut in non-essential businesses aren’t cut in hospitals and airlines and power companies.

You hope.

I’m following Dave Altimari’s coverage of the post-storm power problems on CTNow.com. Dave writes for the Courant which is the same company and newsroom as CTNow and FoxCT. In stories that ran last night and continue today Dave lays out the case CL&P’s prior actions might be the reason so few out-of-town contractors have chosen to come to Connecticut. That’s one reason it will take so long to reestablish power. These problems existed for the Hurricane Irene cleanup too.

Dave quotes CL&P’s CEO Jeffrey Butler,

“But I will assure you, when we had the weather forecast and everything we looked at in preparation for this storm, the amount of snow, which ended up being the problem, was far more significant than what had been forecast,” he said.

“This event as it came in Saturday started earlier and lasted longer, with more snow accumulation — and remember, all the trees still had their foliage on them,” Bulter said.

Excuse me? Here’s what I wrote last Thursday before our minor snow.

Most of tonight’s flakes will melt on contact. What percentage? Who knows. Significant numbers, sure. It’s tough to accurately quantify. With a few higher elevation exceptions tonight will be a minor nuisance and not much more.

Saturday is a different story entirely. The NAM, which has been the snow monger for tonight’s system is stingy Saturday. In fact it puts no snow over Connecticut!

The European, remarkably accurate during much of the hurricane season, the UKMET and GFS all bring a major Nor’easter through on Saturday. We’re talking plowable snow and a howling wind.

The problem is Connecticut’s trees are full of leaves. A storm like this has the potential to cause nearly as much limb and power trouble as Irene… with snow on top!

I’m not yet saying it’s going to happen–just that it might. There’s a significant chance. I’ll have to work that into the forecast.

It’s the weather. I wasn’t 100% sure. Still there was a significant chance for trouble and as you see I laid out what actually happened. I wasn’t alone. Every forecaster had the same concerns.

Business decisions are made every day. You hope the corners cut in non-essential businesses aren’t cut in hospitals and airlines and power companies.

You hope.