Requires electric corporations to submit electric utility emergency plans to the public service commission for review and approval

Summary of provisions

Bill §1 amends subdivision 21 of 06 of the Public Service Law to extend the law's current requirement for "storm plans" to extend to all emergency situations affecting electric transmission and distribution systems. The bill strengthens requirements for emergency plans currently set forth in regulations of the Public Service Commission (PSC). The requirements for such plans, as delineated in the bill, include:

- training exercises, planning, and other preparatory actions to be undertaken in anticipation of major storms, other adverse weather conditions or other events that may result in service outages;

- procedures to be followed for accurately determining the extent of an outage, including the location of affected areas and the overall number of people affected by loss of power or by voltage reductions; procedures for estimating the time required for restoration of service;

- policies for implementing load relief and load control programs; 10-procedures for execution of management responsibilities; and

- any other information that the PSC may require.

The bill also provides for public comment on the emergency plans filed by utilities, and requires the PSC to review the adequacy of any reimbursement policies for spoilage, damages to electrical equipment, lost business or other losses attributable to outages, voltage reductions or inadvertent shutoffs.

Summary of amendments

The Assembly Committee on Energy and the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities and Commissions held a hearing in January of 2009 to examine responses to the December 2008 ice storm, and how to improve government and utility efforts to minimize the duration and impact of power outages. This bill is amended to incorporate improvements suggested at the hearing, such as explicitly including procedures in emergency plans for distribution of dry ice, water, emergency meals and other needed supplies, and providing for review of plans by the State

Emergency Management Office, Office of Homeland Security, and other appropriate state and local agencies and emergency service providers.

Language is also added requiring the PSC to encourage the dissemination of best practices in emergency planning, and authorizing the convening of an emergency preparedness summit. These approaches are being successfully undertaken by other states (e.g., Florida, Missouri) to improve preparedness. Provisions mandating adjustment of monetary limits on reimbursements pursuant to findings of the Consumer Protection Board are deleted to remove an administrative burden.

Effects of present law which this bill would alter

Current law is only applicable to "storm plans" and does not provide standards for the contents of such plans.

Justification

In 2006, the western part of Queens suffered a massive power outage that lasted 9 days. The Assembly Queens Power Outage Task Force studied the outage's causes and the inadequate responses by the company responsible for the transmission and distribution system, Consolidated Edison, and by the Public Service Commission. One underlying cause of this debacle was found to be the reliance by New York's utility regulators on antiquated laws, regulations and policies that let companies engaged in energy transmission and distribution operate without effective oversight.

The Task Force found multiple deficiencies with Consolidated Edison's implementation of its emergency plan. These included inadequate communications to government officials, the media and the public; an utter inability to assess the extent of the outage; serious underreporting of the number of people affected; the lack of any notification of substantial voltage reductions; and ineffective internal communications. By requiring upgrades to electric utility emergency plans and subjecting them to greater public scrutiny, this bill will help ensure that the mistakes made in Western Queens in 2006 are learned from, not repeated.

Prior legislative history

2009-10: S.2288A/A.1557A - Finance 2007-08: S.8414/A.8624 - Senate Rules Committee

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

120th day after enactment; provided that the Public Service Commission is immediately authorized and directed to promulgate rules and take other actions needed to fully implement the bill on such date.