CORRECTION: This story has been changed to reflect the number of customers receiving the bill credit.
Berlin electric utility Connecticut Light & Power will pay $27 million to customers for its late October power outage that left 830,000 customers without electricity, some for more than a week.
Hartford-based Northeast Utilities – CL&P’s parent company – had set up a $30 million fund to provide bill credits to customers who were without electricity after noon on Nov. 5 – eight days after the Oct. 29 storm caused the power outages.
CL&P had 225,000 customers eligible for the credit. After the deadline to sign up for the fund passed on Tuesday, CL&P announced on Wednesday that 192,000 customers will receive a bill credit, 4,200 declined the bill credit and 26,000 never responded.
The 192,000 who signed up will receive a $140.22 storm fund credit on their February bills. The fund disbursements to customers total $27 million. Another $1 million each was donated to Connecticut Food Bank, Foodshare and Operation Fuel were made in December 2011.
CL&P’s preparation and response to the storm and subsequent power outage caused public outage and led to condemnations from local and state officials, including Gov. Dannel Malloy.
NU initially offered $10 million in bill credits to customers; but after Malloy said that figure was too low, the company increased the amount to $30 million.
The criticism over the storm response caused CL&P President Jeffrey Butler to resign; state regulators taking a closer look at NU’s proposed merger with Boston utility NStar; and the legislature to consider proposals call for utility performance standards and penalties.
