More than a week after Tropical Storm Isaias blew through Connecticut with devastating impact, just over 800 homes and businesses remained without power, but those final outages may not be fixed until midnight Thursday, leaving some customers in the dark for a total of nine days.
Around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, Eversource was reporting 784 outages scattered among a number of towns in Fairfield and Litchfield Counties. United Illuminating had resolved all but 46 outages, with 43 of those remaining in West Haven.
Eversource said in a tweet Wednesday that 2,500 crews were continuing restoration efforts and that the utility expected to restore power to those in central and eastern Connecticut by midnight Wednesday and those in the hardest-hit, western part of the state by midnight Thursday. The company cautioned that the remaining outages are more complex and may require the help of a private electrician.
Leaders from some of the municipalities with the longest restoration times have spoken out this week in frustration with a perceived lack of preparedness by Eversource ahead of the storm as they consider legal action.
“Eversource has no plan, they’ve broken promise after promise to our residents, the subcontractor crews are not working or dispatched with any sense of urgency,” Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton said in a social media post.
Boughton said he will be consulting with other municipal leaders and his legal team “to look at legal action that we can bring against Eversource, its CEO, and its senior management team.”
Court records show that no new lawsuits have been filed against the utility in regards to Tropical Storm Isaias.
Meanwhile, the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority is investigating both Eversource’s and United Illuminating’s response to the storm. A document filed with PURA showed Eversource was anticipating a storm with as many as 380,000 outages, but the utility saw more than double that following Isaias.
The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities on Wednesday asked the state to allow the organization to intervene in the investigation as they question PURA’s ability to adequately address the issues.
“PURA’s Chairman Marissa Gillett has made a concerted effort to listen to municipal concerns since her appointment. However, we must question if PURA has the tools necessary and is positioned appropriately to do an adequate job as a utility regulator,” Joe DeLong, CCM’s executive director and CEO, said, in a statement. “Over the past week, municipal leaders across Connecticut have been rightly critical of the Eversource response to Tropical Storm Isaias.”
Dan Rosenthal, the first selectman of Newtown, said Wednesday morning that the town plans to file a brief in connection with PURA’s investigation.
“Newtown does intend to participate on behalf of our residents and businesses,” Rosethenal said at a morning press conference. Newtown, officials said, saw 80% of residents and businesses lose power in the storm and remain without power through the weekend.
Lamont has suggested PURA adopt performance-based metrics that would financially penalize companies for extended outages.
“We’re going to take a good, new, hard look at how they’re regulated and to regulate based on performance, not just for showing up,” he said Wednesday.
Attorney General William Tong filed motions Tuesday asking PURA to open a contested case against the utilities so that he could make the strongest claims for ratepayers, while seeking fines and penalties against the utilities, his office said.
“PURA must clearly and unequivocally preserve all possible options to impose the strongest fines and penalties without delay. I will use the full weight of my authority throughout this investigation to hold Eversource and UI accountable for this stunning failure,” Tong said in a statement.
Tong has also asked Eversource to compensate customers for spoiled food and prescription medicines, as Con Edison has done in New York.
Leaders from the legislature’s energy committee have invited Eversource CEO Jim Judge to a public hearing following the storm and a recent controversial rate increase from Eversource that was met with widespread backlash from customers.
Judge, who has met privately with Gov. Ned Lamont and U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, has not made a public appearance in the wake of the storm. Instead, Eversource President of Electrical Operations Craig Hallstrom has been the public face of the company’s storm response efforts.
“Our hopes are to strengthen residents’ confidence in Eversource, prevent further exorbitant rate increases, and strengthen storm preparedness,” the energy committee leadership wrote in a letter to Judge. “We respectfully request your attendance at the hearing and look forward to working collaboratively together on behalf of Eversource customers.”
A number of elected officials including Blumenthal and Boughton have called on Judge to resign.
Nicholas Rondinone can be reached at nrondinone@courant.com.