The CL&P Shuffle

The October snow storm we experienced has left its mark once again. CEO and President of CL&P Jeff Butler resigned on Thursday.

In addition to announcing the resignation of Jeff Butler, NU made the following announcements concerning CL&P's management:

• The company will undertake a national search for a new President/COO, until a successor is hired James A. Muntz, NU President-Transmission will serve as President and COO.
• A new position at CL&P has been created. William J. Quinlan will serve as CL&P Senior Vice President - Emergency Preparedness.  It will be his job to consolidate and integrate all of CL&P's emergency preparedness.
• Dana Louth, current vice president of asset strategy will now serve as Vice President - CL&P Infrastructure Hardening.  This is a new position and he will be responsible for making the electric system more resistant to weather related events.  This includes vegetation management, structural hardening, electrical hardening and the undergrounding of the system.

This change in management was necessary, but not entirely sufficient in.  Substantial changes in CL&P’s culture with regards to its customer orientation and its processes and procedures will be necessary to turn this utility around.

The legislature held two public hearings to address failures in response to recent power outages with numerous and helpful proposals brought forward from constituents and residents around the state. Earlier this week the Two Storm Panel met for the fourth time in since the first storm in August.

The Utility companies were the first to address the panel. United Illuminating put on an impressive power point presentation for the committee demonstrating how they have changed their communication systems and how they have solicited suggestions to improve communications.

UI stated that bringing in crews from outside the state to augment their own double their capacity and allowed them to meet the expectations of their customers and improve their management capabilities.

There was spirited exchange between panel members and UI regarding the ownership of utility poles between UI and AT&T.  It was explained that the top 60% of the pole is owned by UI and the lower 40% is owned by AT&T.

It was also revealed that 19% of UI's distribution is under ground and 24% of their transmission is also underground.

In Contrast to the previous presentation CL&P brought department heads that stood up and explained their respective areas of responsibility.

They remarked that the combination of outside crews combined with CL&P crews stretched their capabilities to manage the crisis in a seamless fashion.

CL&P maintained that unlike the August Tropical storm Irene where they began to hire crews four days in advance of the storm – in the October snow storm they only began hiring crews in one day of the storms arrival.   

The question remains why did they wait so much longer given their previous experience?

When questioned about ownership of the poles between utility and phone company,  CL&P explained they have a 50-50 ownership with AT & T. Additionally Connecticut Light and Power has 19% of their transmission underground and 27% of their distribution also underground.

Both UI and CL&P talked about the importance of doing a statewide storm drill.

CL&P offered these lessons learned:

Operations:

• Develop and implement a strategy to accelerate the availability of additional line crews.
• Work with towns to implement a consistent, statewide make-safe (road clearing protocol)
• Develop a comprehensive plan to better manage vegetation adjacent to public ways and utility infrastructure.
• Initiate an industry dialogue on improving mutual aid processes
• Develop a tagging process to identify downed communications wires to the public
• Formalize a process to utilize outside local electricians to assist in the completion of service repairs for major restoration events

Communications:

• Enhance town liaison training and technology
• Leverage town-detailed damage assessments
• Work with state and towns to conduct statewide mock full-scale readiness drills

These lessons learned seem very reminiscent of the testimony provided by our constituents and shared in the numerous letters written to the administration concerning these storms. 

Although the two storm panel has held its hearing more reviews are underway.

In addition to the two storm panel the following investigations are being conducted.

1. Legislative and town level hearings
2. Internal reviews by utilities using outside consultants
3. A 3rd party review by Witt Associates for the Executive Branch,
4. And PURA, The Public Utility Regulatory Authority, conducting its own investigation.

The after shocks of this two punch massive power outage will reverberate throughout the next legislative session -as various elected officials start to assemble next years legislative proposals. 

These proposals are sure to include controversial issues regarding tree removal, putting utility and telephone lines underground and changes to the length of the school year, and all of this even before winter officially begins.  One thing that is certain is that future storms can not be prevented, but utilities should be better prepared.