Community Corner

Bill Addresses State's Emergency Preparedness

Carpino: We cannot let regulated utilities keep the residents of the state at its bureaucratic mercy.

 

A bill to address much needed improvements to the way Connecticut’s emergency preparedness and response to major storms, such as the two storms the state encountered last August and October, was passed by the General Assembly on Wednesday.

The towns in northern Middlesex County were all hit hard by the October Snowstorm causing millions of dollars in damage. State Representative Christie Carpino spent time in the shelters of Portland, Cromwell and Middletown, the three towns she serves in the 32nd District, working alongside volunteers and town officials.

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The bill requires state regulators with the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) to establish new performance standards for telecommunications, and electric and gas utilities with regards to emergency preparations and the restoration of service when an emergency reaches the threshold of resulting in interruption of service for 10 percent or more of the utility’s customer base without service for 48 hours or longer.

“One of the more frustrating aspects of the storm outages was a lack of consistent and accurate communication of information from the power companies to those who pay for their service," Carpino said in a press release. "The utilities had difficulty managing the resources and crews and when they finally got to the state and they failed to pre-stage crews prior to the storm, which impacted their ability to respond.

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“Once the crews arrived in our communities, they worked long and hard. But, it was too little, too late. We cannot let regulated utilities keep the residents of the state at its bureaucratic mercy without additional oversight.”

Regulators will be expected to review standards for minimum staffing levels for each of the utility companies based on how many customers they have and implement a communications plan between the utilities and their customers.

Falling trees and downed limbs were responsible for most of the power outages in both storm events. Because of this, regulators will now be reviewing and evaluating each utility company’s plans for tree removal and trimming, ensuring that better steps are taken to make certain that downed trees cause far fewer outages in future storm events.

In addition, regulators will also report on utility call center operations, and how the utilities notify state and local officials to coordinate needed responses.  PURA must submit its report identifying these new standards by Nov. 1. Should PURA reach the conclusion that proper standards are not being met in any of these areas, civil penalties can be levied against distribution companies in an amount that cannot exceed 2.5 percent of that company’s distribution revenue.

Most of the contents of this legislation were derived from the report of the task force which was put together by Governor Dannel P. Malloy and the General Assembly.

Both chambers of the legislature have approved this measure and it is now on its way to Gov. Malloy for his signature.

 

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