Connecticut Attorney General George Jepsen on Monday called for Berlin electric utility Connecticut Light & Power to face roughly $150 million in penalties for poor response to two widespread 2011 power outages, according to a regulatory filing.
Jepsen asked the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to disallow recovery of any outage-related costs that resulted from CL&P’s poor response and assess another 30-50 percent of the storm restoration and recovery costs as a penalty for its substandard preparations and management of Tropical Storm Irene in August and the Oct. 29 snowstorm.
CL&P’s storm recovery costs are estimated between $291-$305 million, with Jepsen asking for just over half to be held as a penalty against the company. The storm costs normally would be recovered through more charges on ratepayer bills, although CL&P said previously it would defer recovery to 2014.
In his filing, Jepsen said CL&P did not adequately prepare for the storms, failed to ask for outside assistance in a timely manner, had unreasonable restoration times and communicated poorly with state and local officials.
Jepsen’s filing with PURA is part of the ongoing regulatory case investigating the outage response by CL&P and New Haven electric utility United Illuminating. PURA’s final decision is expected on Aug. 1.
CL&P’s parent company – Northeast Utilities, based in Hartford and Boston – plans to file a response to Jepsen’s brief. NU spokesman Al Lara said independent investigations into the company’s response said CL&P’s actions weren’t as bad as Jepsen characterized.
“CL&P’s overall performance was within industry norms,” Lara said.
If PURA doesn’t disallow CL&P to recover its storm costs, Jepsen proposed an alternative penalty. He said CL&P should receive a lower return on equity – which is the utility’s profit on its transmission and distribution infrastructure – in future ratemaking cases.
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