Blumenthal to Eversource: Prepare for the Worst & Hope for the Best

[HARTFORD, CT] – This morning, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) sent a letter to Joseph R. Nolan, President/Chief Executive Officer of Eversource ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Elsa in Connecticut to strongly urge Eversource to take appropriate action to ensure that there is not a repeat of their performance from Tropical Storm Isaias.

“Connecticut consumers will find totally intolerable a repeat of Eversource’s negligent actions prior to Storm Isaias --with its disastrous results.  Poor preparation and storm response left hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents without power – many for more than a week.  Consumer losses of food, prescription drugs and medical supplies totaled millions of dollars while putting people’s lives in danger,” wrote Blumenthal.

A full copy of the letter is below.

Dear Mr. Nolan: 

As Connecticut lies in the storm path of Hurricane Elsa, I am writing to strongly urge Eversource to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. 

Connecticut consumers will find totally intolerable a repeat of Eversource’s negligent actions prior to Storm Isaias --with its disastrous results.  Poor preparation and storm response left hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents without power – many for more than a week.  Consumer losses of food, prescription drugs and medical supplies totaled millions of dollars while putting people’s lives in danger.  In the wake of this unmitigated disaster, PURA commendably imposed fines on Eversource and ordered Eversource to reimburse consumers for some of the damage suffered as a result of extended, future power outages.

As is obvious to anyone following today’s weather reports, Eversource should be preparing for a megastorm comparable to Tropical Storm Isaias -- staging crews, mobilizing equipment, putting management on the ground and implementing other measures lacking in  Tropical Storm Isaias.

Already, in the storms that occurred across Connecticut on Tuesday, there were more than 25,000 customers without power.  Better preparation is critical to ensuring that any power outage is responded to quickly   Eversource has the professional crews to expertly repair lines and restore power but these important employees have received fewer resources than are necessary to adequately respond to storm damage.  Further, Eversource previously failed to stage enough out of state crews to respond to impending storms which exacerbated the slowness of restoration work. 

I wholeheartedly support PURA’s financial disincentives for failures to restore electricity in a timely manner which make it in PURA’s best financial interests to expend necessary resources for preparation and mitigation of damage. 

Eversource should put people before profits.  Continued failures by Eversource should cause a reassessment of our investor-owned utility model and replacement with an entity whose sole interest in the best interest of the ratepayer. 

Sincerely,

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