COMMENTARY
Every field employee of the electric utility companies in the United States knows that the companies are doing the minimum of maintenance, and every top level executive in these companies knows that they are doing everything possible for the companies' investors. This is not the business model and legal framework that was created to support the growth of the investor owned electic utility industry.

There are four key stakeholders (1) the customers, (2) the employees (3) the management, and (4) the investors. In the present model it is only the management and investors that are rewarded, and the customers and employees are screwed. (Excuse the blunt profanity, but I cannot find a better word).

I would like to see the law changed so that when there is an outage, the customers are paid according to a fixed computation based on duration and a likely loss profile related to life-style or business type and electricity use. The relaiability of the system seems to be worse now than it was 50 years ago ... which is ridiculous, but explains why the economy of the USA has gone off a cliff while the 1% who are mainly top management and investors are doing hyper-well.
Peter Burgess

Connecticut AG to join power probe Connecticut utility says 92% of customers were back online Sunday

State prosecutors to join ex-FEMA chief's inquiry Utility chief pledges to cooperate with probe

(CNN) -- Connecticut's governor has asked state prosecutors to join a review of what he called the 'inadequate' response by the state's largest utility to last week's snowstorm.

Connecticut Light and Power said 92% of its customers had their lights back on by Sunday, and it was still working to have 99% of service restored by midnight Sunday. But 31 towns were likely to fall short of that mark, with at least one town falling below the 90% mark, company President Jeffrey Butler told reporters.

As of 8 a.m. Sunday, 105,000 customers remained without electricity, he said. Overnight lows dipped into the 20s in the north-central part of the state, with low 30s predicted for Monday morning.

Butler defended his company's performance, but acknowledged that 'This has been a long, hard week for the customers who have been out of power.' Gov. Dannel Malloy announced Friday that he had hired a former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief to review how CL&P and another utility, United Illuminating, dealt with the late-October blizzard that hit the Northeast. Sunday, he told reporters that he had asked state Attorney General George Jepsen's office to join the review, led by Clinton administration FEMA chief James Lee Witt.

'I'm not prejudging anything, but it's clear that CL&P's response to this storm was inadequate,' Malloy said. Jepsen's involvement will help make sure Witt's inquiry 'has the access to everything it needs, whether that's people, documents or anything else.'

And Jepson said his office would examine 'if there's a basis for damages for the state or for consumers.'

Butler said CL&P welcomed the investigation, which joins a similar review of the utility's performance following Tropical Storm Irene in September -- 'the two most significant events that have ever hit the state of Connecticut in terms of power loss.'

'We will work in any way that the state asks us to participate,' he said.

The snowstorm struck in late October, killing at least 22 people around the eastern United States. Eight people were reported to have died in Connecticut, half of them from carbon monoxide poisoning.