As crews from Connecticut electric utilities continue to turn the power back on following Hurricane Irene, nearly 350,000 electric customers remain in the dark Wednesday afternoon.
While restoration work continues, preliminary estimates from CL&P show the storm will cost the company $75 million, spokesman Al Lara said.
That $75 million number will be revised as the company better figures its restoration and damage costs and factors in other items such as federal aid, Lara said.
Even after the final cost is calculated, CL&P will try to spread the expenses out over a number of years to lessen the impact on ratepayers, Lara said. Any rate change as a result of storm damage must be approved by the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority.
As of 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, CL&P had 289,830 customers without power, representing 23 percent of the Berlin-based utility’s customer base.
As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, New Haven-based United Illuminating had 54,717 customers without power, representing 17 percent of UI’s customer base.
Both companies have brought in crews from outside the state to aid in the restoration efforts.
