Requires the public service commission to establish standards of acceptable performance for electric corporations

BILL NUMBER:S6094

Title of bill

An act to amend the public service law, in relation to requiring the public service commission to establish standards of acceptable performance for electric corporations

Purpose of bill

This bill would require the public service commission to establish standards for gas and electric corporations in the event of a power outage.

Summary of specific provisions

Section 66 of the public service law would be amended by adding a new subdivision 2-b

Section 1 - Gives the public service commission the power to establish performance standards for gas and electric corporations in the event of a power outage.

Section 1(a) - Performance standards shall be based on the foreseeable nature of the outage and the number of customers affected.

Section 1(b) - Corporations found to be in violation of the standards set forth by the public service commission shall be penalized for each violation in a manner which the commission deems just and proper.

Section 1(c)- Penalties shall include but not be limited to a credit for each customer of the amount of money charged for one kilowatt hour for each kilowatt hour of service outage.

Section 2 - This act shall take effect immediately.

Justification

On October 29, 2011 the Northeast was hit with a powerful snow storm affecting more than 2 million homes and businesses and causing the deaths of at least three people. More than 2.3 million customers lost power, and firms were bringing in crews from other states to help restore it. Governor Andrew Cuomo, declared a state of emergency for 13 counties.

Although there was no way to prevent the storm, this early winter snow fall turned into outrage when thousands of utility customers reported no power well into the month of November. Many New Yorkers complained that the response time of the utility companies begged for improvement.

Outraged by utility response time, our neighboring states of Connecticut and Pennsylvania plan to introduce legislation creating standards of acceptable performance modeled after Massachusetts law.

The state of Massachusetts enacted legislation in 2009 in the wake of lackadaisical utility response to an ice storm that year.

New York should follow in our neighboring states' footsteps to ensure that our residents are not without power for an unreasonable amount of time due to unacceptable performance by our utility companies.

This bill would allow the Public Service Commission to create standards of acceptable performance for utility companies with respect to serving customers and power restoration following outages. Establishing these standards to provide a blueprint to our utility companies for acceptable response time. Failure to meet those standards would result in penalties for the utility company and reimbursement to the customers affected.

Legislative history

None.

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.