The State Department of Public Service has issued notices of apparent violation to PSEG-Long Island and four other utilities, including Altice USA (Optimum), for their response to Tropical Storm Isaias, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said during a press conference today.
Cuomo said he has asked the Department of Financial Services to assist the Department of Public Service with the investigation into the utilities’ preparation for and response to Tropical Storm Isaias and resulting electric power outages. The governor ordered DPS to conduct an investigation on Aug. 5, the day after the storm hit New York, causing massive, widespread power and communications outages.
“I am not satisfied with the performance of DPS,” the governor said. “I want a faster, more thorough investigation than they’ve done in the past,” he said. The Department of Financial Services is headed by a former federal prosecutor.
Cuomo said “PSE&G has already been notified they are not going to receive their the $10 million bonus,” which he said was part of their contract if they “performed well.”
PSEG-Long Island took about a week to fully restore power to the 421,000 customers knocked out by Isaias on Aug. 4. During and after the storm, the utility experienced major communications outages, resulting in customers unable to report outages by phone, text or via PSEG-LI’s website, which was down for significant portions of the day of the storm. PSEG-LI blamed Verizon for the communications failures. The governor did not mention Verizon in his announcement today, though he did name Verizon among the utilities he ordered DPS to investigate on Aug. 5.
Besides PSEG-LI and Altice, DPS has issued notices of apparent violation to Consolidated Edison, Orange and Rockland Utilities Inc. and Central Hudson Gas & Electric.
The governor also said he will introduce legislation to clarify the process by which a utility’s franchise can be revoked. Specifically, he said his bill will “redefine franchise revocation” by defining what is a corporate asset and what is an asset of the rate payers. By example, he cited utility poles, wires and trucks. They are owned by the utility but they are paid for with money from rate payers, Cuomo said. The bill he’ll introduce will address the ownership of these assets in the event of a franchise revocation.
The State Senate and Assembly on Thursday are holding a joint public hearing on power and communication failures from Tropical Storm Isaias. The hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. and will be live-streamed on the senate and assembly websites.
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