Electric utility Eversource has been told by state regulators it must have a target response time of 30 minutes for critical incidents on fair weather days.
NBC Connecticut Investigates has filed a series of reports about the incident that prompted this, when a couple in their 80s was stuck in their vehicle with live wires on top of it for roughly an hour.
The incident took place January 17 in Norfolk, in the middle of the day, in the middle of the week, on a major road, with no bad weather.
George and Corinne Green were trapped in a car with live wires draped over it after running into a utility pole while firefighters and relatives waited for an Eversource crew to respond to what is known as a priority one incident -- the most serious of the calls Eversource gets.
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Eversource has said assigning a response specialist within seconds of getting the call from dispatch, as the Public Utilities Regulartory Authority (PURA) suggested, would have been irresponsible.
The company noted: “there were only two facts known at that point, which is the approximate location of the accident, and that there was a passenger 'entrapment.'”
PURA voted unanimously to impose a new 30-minute response standard on Eversource for priority one incidents, after a six-month review of the case.
"This is a target that the authority is laying out. And specifically, it's a target for blue sky days, which are days like today, where the sun is shining, and there are no weather events ongoing," PURA chairwoman Marissa Gillett said. "The authority has found ample evidence to suggest that this is an appropriate action at this time.”
Both Eversource and the union representing its line workers have filed comments in opposition to PURA’s decision.
Eversource said in a statement:
“This is a ruling that is harmful to public safety and puts our employees at risk. The Eversource team that responded that day followed every procedure and acted with the highest level of responsibility and responsiveness. We commend the Town of Norfolk for their quick and capable actions as well. While we always strive for improvement, we do plan to exercise our legal options to challenge today’s decision.”
Meanwhile, IBEW Local 420 warned PURA is “…setting dangerous deadlines…”, in regard to the 30-minute blue-sky priority one response time target.
As of now, the state’s other major utility, United Illuminating, is not subject to the same critical incident response target.
However, PURA recently opened a similar proceeding for UI as well.
Eversource may also face fines of up to $29,000 for an alleged failure to properly report what happened in Norfolk, according to PURA.
