Posted by Dennis Herrick on May 27, 2009 at 13:04:59:
Why can't Unitil just trim the trees, underground critical lines and upgrade their infrastructure over the next 5 or 10 years. Like the school systems, they can't offer bread and butter solutions to their problems. That would cost money! Instead, they try to fool everyone with more smoke and mirrors. Well, we're not fooled. You want to put an end to your sporatic outages then get your lazy ass out there Unitil and trim the trees.
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_THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC_
(http://www.mypublicnotices.com/Fitchburg/PublicNotice.asp?Page=Public...)
THE COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC UTILITIES NOTICE OF
PUBLIC HEARING D.P.U. 09-31 May 12, 2009 Petition by Fitchburg Gas and
Electric Light Company for approval of a pilot program on the provision of a
smart grid. On July 2, 2008, Chapter 169 of the Acts of 2008 ("Green
Communities Act") was enacted. Section 85 of the Green Communities Act requires
electric distribution companies to file plans with the Department of Public
Utilities ("Department") for providing a smart grid pilot program. On April
1, 2009, Fitchburg Gas and Electric Light Company ("Fitchburg" or
"Company") filed its pilot program with the Department. This matter has been
docketed as D.P.U. 09-31. In general, a smart grid involves the addition of
technology such as computer and communications systems to the existing electrical
grid in order to: (1) provide customers with real-time electricity
consumption information; (2) improve the flow of electricity to reduce outages and
costs; and (3) integrate renewable and other resources to provide
electricity to the grid. Fitchburg's pilot program involves: increasing customer
knowledge about electricity usage; providing customers with different pricing
options; and installing an outage management system and communications
technology to reduce customer outages and costs within the electric
distribution system. Fitchburg proposes to operate its pilot program for three
months and include a total of 96 Massachusetts customers. Fitchburg proposes to
recover estimated program costs of $214,000 from all basic service
customers in one year. Based on the Company's cost recovery proposal, a typical
basic service customer (using 500 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month)
would be subject to basic service rates that are higher than current basic
service rates by $0.42 per month in 2010. The Department will hold a public
hearing to receive comments on Fitchburg's proposal at 10:00 a.m. on Monday,
June 15, 2009 at the Department's offices, One South Station, Boston,
Massachusetts. The Department will hold a procedural conference immediately
following the public hearing. Any person who desires to comment may do so at
the time of the public hearing or may submit written comments no later than
the close of business (5:00 p.m.) on June 15, 2009. Any person who desires
to participate in the evidentiary phase of this proceeding must file a
written petition for leave to intervene, not later than the close of business
(5:00 p.m.) on Wednesday, June 3, 2009. A petition for leave to intervene
must satisfy the timing and substantive requirements of 220 C.M.R. § 1.03.
Receipt by the Department, not mailing, constitutes filing and determines
whether a petition has been timely filed. A petition filed late may be
disallowed as untimely, unless good cause is shown for waiver pursuant to 220
C.M.R. § 1.01(4). Pursuant to 220 C.M.R. § 1.03(1), a petition must satisfy the
standing requirements of G.L. c. 30A, § 10 to be allowed. One (1) original
and five (5) copies of comments and/or petitions to intervene should be
delivered to Mary L. Cottrell, Secretary, Department of Public Utilities, One
South Station, 2nd Floor, Boston, Massachusetts 02110 by the dates and
times referenced above. One (1) copy of all comments and/or petitions to
intervene also should be sent to counsel for Fitchburg, Gary Epler, Unitil, 6
Liberty Lane West, Hampton, New Hampshire 03842-1720. All documents should
also be submitted to the Department in electronic format using one of the
following methods: (1) by e-mail attachment to dpu.efil...@state.ma.us and the
hearing officer [laura.bic...@state.ma.us]; or (2) on a 3.5" disk or
CD-ROM. The text of the e-mail, disk label, or CD-ROM must specify: (1) the
docket number of the proceeding (D.P.U. 09-31); (2) the name of the person or
company submitting the filing; and (3) a brief descr1ptive title of the
document. All documents submitted in electronic format will be posted on the
Department's website: _http://www.mass.gov/dpu_ (http://www.mass.gov/dpu) . A
copy of the filing is available for public viewing on the Department's
website, at the Fitchburg Public Library, 610 Main Street, Fitchburg,
Massachusetts, or at the Department's offices, One South Station, Boston,
Massachusetts during business hours. Any person desiring further information
regarding the Company's petition should contact Gary Epler, legal counsel for
Fitchburg, at: (603) 773-6440. Any person desiring further information
regarding this notice should contact Laura Bickel, Hearing Officer, Department of
Public Utilities at: (617) 305-3500. May 27, 2009 Appeared in: Sentinel &
Enterprise on Wednesday, 05/27/2009