Electric utility Eversource is facing potential fines and other consequences following an investigation after a couple in a car was trapped under live wires.
It’s a story NBC Connecticut Investigates has been following exclusively since January.
We’re talking about what Eversource calls a priority one incident, the most serious calls the utility gets, and how regulators viewed what they consider a delayed response.
Staff from the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, or PURA, determined Eversource’s response to a January wires down incident was “delayed due to imprudent actions,” not sending the closest response specialist and “prioritizing lower level tasks.”
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During an April 6 hearing under oath on this, Eversource told PURA it just took a while for crews to get to the scene - it was all the way up in Norfolk, in our state’s northwest corner.
Paul Raia, Eversource’s director of Electric Operations - Respond and Restore Division, said in the hearing, “Their objective is to get there as safely as quickly as possible, with the understanding that they still have to obey by all Connecticut traffic laws. Meaning stop at lights, stop at stop signs, proceed in a safe manner.”
However, this incident was in the middle of the business day, with clear skies and on a major road, Route 44.
Also at the hearing, an Eversource manager testified the team coordinating the line workers did not have a mapping tool that shows the real-time location of the line workers who could respond.
“It essentially becomes a judgement call based off of the operator’s experience where those response specialists located in the zone, who would get there the fastest,” William Gelinas, Eversource director of Electric System Operations in Connecticut, said at the April 6 hearing.
In another admonishment of Eversource, PURA called into question the credentials of one of the Eversource employees coordinating reviews of incidents like the one in Norfolk.
The PURA report said, “although the employee tasked with completing the accident reports has completed in-house training, she is…without an engineering, investigation or paralegal background.”
The upshot: PURA is proposing a 30-minute response standard for Eversource on priority one calls.
It also may get fined for late and incomplete initial reports on the Norfolk incident.
Eversource tells NBC Connecticut Investigates, “We’re reviewing the draft decision and will reply to PURA by the required date,” which is July 19.
In a letter, Eversource is asking regulators for three more days to respond to the report because it "has substantial impacts on the manner in which the company staffs and responds to priority events," and "imposes new reporting obligations on immediate reports for major accidents."
At this point, PURA is not commenting. This is a preliminary final decision, so the ink’s not dry on it yet.
PURA’s final vote on this decision is Aug. 2.
