Eversource Must Pay $29M For Failures During 'Isaias,' State Says

CONNECTICUT — Eversource has been hit with a civil penalty of $29 million by the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority in connection with the utility company's failures during last year's Tropical Storm Isaias, Connecticut Attorney General William Tong announced Wednesday.

The August storm left a path of destruction during the coronavirus pandemic, and knocked out power to more than 1 million Eversource customers throughout Connecticut, some for more than a week.

Prior to PURA's final decision, regulators had sought $30 million in fines against Eversource, which would have been the highest possible amount by state law.

Tong had advocated for the higher amount, but he praised PURA's final decision against Eversource, stressing that the company failed to meet its obligations to ratepayers following the storm.

"Eversource failed its customers and put Connecticut families at risk," Tong said in a statement. "Their response to Tropical Storm Isaias was unacceptable, and PURA is right to impose severe penalties. This penalty will be paid rightfully by the company and its shareholders—not ratepayers. Eversource has much work to do to regain our trust, and we will be holding them accountable at every step along the way."

In a statement emailed to Patch, Eversource spokesperson Mitch Gross did not specifically address the civil penalty, but discussed the company's hardwork in addressing storms.

"Time and time again our employees work tirelessly to restore power as quickly as possible and support our customers and communities when outages occur," Gross said. "We cannot control the weather, or the damage that is caused by falling trees and vegetation when storm damage occurs. However, our employees are relentless in returning to the field every time they are called upon to repair the damage and get the power back on as quickly as safety allows. Our focus now is on the future and assuring that our emergency response efforts are intensive and that our employees are safe and secure in doing their jobs on behalf of our customers and communities."

In his brief to PURA, filed earlier this year to address Eversource's Tropical Storm Isaias failures, Tong argued that Eversource:

1.) Was imprudently unprepared to communicate with its customers during the Tropical Storm Isaias emergency

2.) Imprudently administered the Make Safe phase of the storm response related to road clearing

3.) Ineffectively implemented its town liaison program during the critical early days of the public safety emergency

"PURA correctly concluded that Eversource failed to comply with the applicable performance and prudence standards for each of these fundamental areas of storm preparedness and response," Tong added.

Tong intervened last August on behalf of Connecticut ratepayers in PURA’s investigation into the response by both Eversource and United Illuminating to Tropical Storm Isaias. At his urging, PURA agreed to open a contested case and prudence review—legal proceedings that enable the Attorney General to make the strongest possible claims on behalf of ratepayers and the state, to seek fines, penalties and injunctive relief, and to oppose the utilities’ requests for profits and reimbursement of storm-related costs. PURA has robust authority as the state’s principal regulator and the legal forum to investigate and pursue such claims against state utilities.

The Office of the Attorney General issued 58 interrogatories in the proceeding, questioning both Eversource and United Illuminating on all facets of their storm preparation and response.

Eversource's failures caused severe harm, Tong’s brief detailed, including:

• A wastewater treatment plant was left without power for nearly a week
• A police station was without power for at least six days
• A deceased person was left in a car for five hours, trapped by a tree tangled in electric wires
• A family dog was electrocuted by a live downed wire a full four days after Isaias struck
• Vulnerable residents were trapped in their homes without power
• Those dependent on wells did not have running water

Assistant Attorneys General Lauren Bidra, Matthew Fitzsimmons, John Wright, Robert Shea, Paralegal Specialist Casey Rybak, and Michael Wertheimer, Deputy Associate Attorney General & Chief of the Consumer Protection Section assisted the Attorney General in this matter.