Posted by Dennis Herrick on December 26, 2009 at 15:54:06:
Someone needs to put this Bride of Frankenstein company, Unitil, out of it's misery. Maybe
Central Maine Power will scoop 'em up when their Unitil's limp stocks drop to $15 a share and save us ratepayers.
Here are some exerpts from the NH Public Utilities Commission's hearings on the ice storm.
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12 CHAIRMAN GETZ: The next is Andy Singh,
13 from Exeter. And, is Kerri your wife?
14 MR. SINGH: Yes, she is. I missed the
15 one in Exeter. So, I know that she carried the torch for
16 the family. But I also wanted to make some comments.
17 First of all, I wanted to thank you for the opportunity to
18 speak. I think this is a very important step. I have
19 four major points. And, Unitil is my provider. Four
20 points: I think there was poor communication. This led
21 to miscommunication. There was apparently a lack of a
22 plan, and the lack of proper resources on Unitil's part,
23 in my opinion. First of all, my criticisms of Unitil have
24 absolutely nothing to do with the workers. I think
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Raymond 03-31-09}
17
1 everybody here, everyone I've spoken to, feels they were
2 doing God's work. It was the holidays, terrible
3 conditions, they were working 17, 18 hours a day. I think
4 that they were extraordinary. I just wish that the
5 leaders of Unitil lived up to the example that their
6 workers set.
7 People talk about "poor communication",
8 and I think that's putting it very mildly. The first
9 three days you could barely reach anyone at Unitil. If
10 you did, you were given absolutely no information. That
11 poor communication slowly evolved into miscommunication.
12 I'm calling it "miscommunication" as an euphemism for lies.
13 I was told on five consecutive nights that my power would
14 would be restored by midnight that night. The Police Chief
15 in Exeter was told that they were working, as someone just
16 pointed out, that they were working on the pole that was
17 down in my neighborhood. The Police Chief was told that
18 while we were standing in front of the pole that was down.
19 There was a pole that laid down across the road for eight
20 days without being moved. So, the roads couldn't be
21 plowed. So, it limited emergency access. It became a
22 safety issue as well.
23 So, there was miscommunications to
24 customers, miscommunications to emergency personnel.
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Raymond 03-31-09}
18
1 Amazingly, there was even miscommunication within the
2 Company. There were times where people in Unitil were
3 posting on the website that all the homes in Stratham or
4 50 homes in Stratham were now without power. So, Unitil
5 -- the trucks left because they thought everybody was back
6 on. In reality, there were several hundred homes without
7 power that thus went without power for several more days.
8 So, even within the Company there was miscommunication.
9 I think it all boils down to what
10 appears to me, and I'm certainly no expert, but it appears
11 to me that there was a lack of a tenable plan. I have no
12 idea, but that's only what appears to me.
13 I think another important thing is,
14 communication is one thing, because that can be learned or
15 taught, I hope. There was also a very significant lack of
16 resources. To me, it seems that Unitil is a small
17 company, I know they're a local company, they're based out
18 of Hampton, and I'm certain that the people that lead the
19 Company are very good men and woman, but they did a
20 terrible job. They didn't have the resources that were
21 available. And, more importantly, they didn't have the
22 ability to get the resources. A lady said that PSNH has
23 500 trucks or 500 crews working at a time. At the peak,
24 according to Unitil's own information, at their very peak,
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Raymond 03-31-09}
19
1 they had 119 trucks, 119 units. And, that was split
2 between us and Fitchburg, Massachusetts. And, they
3 clearly did not have the resources, nor the ability to get
4 the resources. And, I don't know how that's going to
5 change, because subsequent to this ice storm, they took
6 over another utility in Rochester, so they're even more
7 spread out than they were before.
8 I'm a physician. If there had been such
9 a systematic failure in something I did, I would lose my
10 license, and rightfully so. If an elected official acted
11 so poorly, they would be voted out of office. If a
12 regular business acted so poorly, no one would go to them.
13 And, that's why we need you. This is, in essence, a
14 government-run monopoly. I can't say, you know, Unitil
15 did a lousy job that they can no longer provide my
16 service. I've got no choice. We need you.
17 And, I think the first question to ask,
18 I think it's very easy for this to be just turned into a
19 public regulations spin. I think the first question that
20 needs to be asked is "Can Unitil provide the service?" I
21 think it's a very basic question. And, to me, that has to
22 be shown. It has not been shown to this point. That's
23 all I have to say.
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4 CHAIRMAN GETZ: Kerri Singh.
5 MS. SINGH: Hi. My name is Kerri Singh.
6 I live at 4 Indian Trail, in Exeter, also known as
7 Pickpocket Woods, off of Pickpocket Road. And, we were
8 without power for eight and a half to nine days, and, even
9 after, how frustrated you are. I apologize, I was here
10 late for the meeting, so I did not get to hear your
11 comments. And, I know some of this is repetitive, but I
12 promised my kids that I'd tell our story today. When we
13 went out to see on Friday, we knew that our street was
14 bad. We saw the power lines. We knew we were one of the
15 last to get service. So, we were thinking days. When we
16 came back, and stayed at hotels, and had my kids uprooted
17 and went to friends' houses. And, finally, on Wednesday,
18 I went to the town office here and I said "is there any
19 word?" Because Unitil keeps telling me "by midnight
20 tonight", "by midnight tonight". And, so, he said "well,
21 I can't get word, but, you can talk to the Police Chief."
22 I went to the Police Chief, he called the special number,
23 he said "There's a truck there they just told me." I said
24 "I just came from there, there's no truck." "There's a
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Exeter 03-24-09}
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1 truck there." "There's no truck." There were no trucks
2 at all.
3 I think that, along with the lack of
4 communication we got for the first five days, was worst
5 when we got inaccurate information. It was "the truck's
6 there", there's no truck. Then, it was "by midnight
7 tonight". I relied heavily on the Seacoast media groups,
8 because they were the only people that really returned my
9 calls, gave me accurate information, and basically said
10 they "didn't know", and that they would find out and call
11 me back. Along with the Police Chief here and some of the
12 firemen in Exeter.
13 Thursday there was still nothing there.
14 That's when we made signs on Thursday. And, miraculously,
15 Channel 9 showed up, and that was the first time I saw a
16 Unitil pickup truck was when the news crew came out and
17 Channel 9 was there. Unfortunately, that didn't follow
18 with a bucket truck.
19 Friday, let's see, we're still without
20 power, no electricity, no heat. My neighbors wouldn't
21 leave their houses, an elderly woman wouldn't leave her
22 house because she was in fear of looting. It was widely
23 known that our neighborhood had no electricity, no lights,
24 no power, most people couldn't by generators at that point
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Exeter 03-24-09}
95
1 or afraid to install them. And, so, the act of looting at
2 someone else's house is a very real possibility, even
3 though we were assured otherwise. There was no one to
4 come around really to check on the elderly.
5 Pipes had burst in our neighborhood.
6 And, then, let's see, Friday night we got word that there
7 was a truck coming out at about five clock to Pickpocket
8 Road. Ironically or not, it may have had to do with
9 something that the AP service picked up and CNN was
10 running on their website. I don't know, but, after this,
11 I was a little bit of a skeptic. And, then, finally, on
12 Saturday, about noontime, we got electricity and our heat
13 and water.
14 I think that to say "there wasn't a
15 plan" was pretty accurate. To say that, you know, in
16 schools, we -- in our workplaces, we have to do "worst
17 case scenario" planning all the time, regardless what that
18 is. And, it's startling to me that Unitil did not have a
19 plan. And, the woman said to me on the phone, "Well, we
20 have actually no way of communicating with the guys in the
21 truck to see actually if they're there at that time." By
22 the eighth day, by the ninth day, why wasn't middle
23 management or upper management out there helping those
24 guys in the trucks, communicating. They, obviously, have
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Exeter 03-24-09}
96
1 cellphones. If the guys didn't in the trucks have
2 cellphones, then upper management did. Why weren't they
3 following around, going back and communicating to customer
4 service, so that they gave us accurate information, and
5 not just the same old lines?
6 It's startling to realize that, although
7 we pay some of the highest rates in the country, there's
8 seven trucks for this service area, and not any kind of
9 backup, and who gets it, who doesn't get it. It's just
10 startling to me. Three months later I am still so
11 frustrated. That this costs, you know, a lot. And, I
12 wasn't alone, we weren't exorbitant, but it cost us well
13 over a thousand dollars, between the generator, the gas,
14 the hotel, food, the eating out. And, we were the ones
15 that could afford it. What about the people that couldn't
16 afford it?
17 So, to say that, in a full page ad, and
18 to pay that money for a full page ad, to say "We had some
19 problems, we know we did, and we're going to try better",
20 just wasn't good enough to us. I think that we deserve
21 more as a community. I think that, in a state like New
22 Hampshire, where our motto is "Live Free or Die", I didn't
23 think that we needed the Legislature to say to our public
24 utilities "You need to come up with an emergency response
{December Ice Storm Hearing @ Exeter 03-24-09}
97
1 plan and work with the fire department and work with the
2 police department." When the police department had the
3 same information that I was given as a citizen, I knew
4 something was dangerously wrong. When I read in the
5 Seacoast media that they didn't even know that the
6 Seabrook Fire Department didn't have electricity or was
7 without power, I just don't trust what's going on. I
8 think that, not only does Unitil need to look at their
9 problems, but they need to come back to the community and
10 say "this is what we did step-by-step", not a full page
11 ad, not a media thing, but "this is what we're doing."
12 And, we, as citizens, need to get involved and develop and
13 help communicate the needs of the elderly or the needs of
14 the very young, then we can do that as a community. But
15 we need some answers, real answers, not a PR thing. And,
16 that's it. Thank you.
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And this editorial appeared in the Nashua Telegraph today. It originally appeared in the Portsmouth Herald. Southern NH Newspapers are lining up against Unitil now. What's wrong with that Manchester Union Leader and The Eagle Tribune in Lawrence/Derry. You'd expect either silence or editorials pandering to Unitil from the Concord Monitor, but not the UL or the ET.
Saturday, December 26, 2009 Criticism of utility comes as no surprise
BACKGROUND: The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has singled out Unitil for further
investigation of its poor response to the December 2008 ice storm.
CONCLUSION: The power company serving 15,000 New Hampshire residents should stop defending
the indefensible, improve its emergency response plan and move on. Unitil expressed
“surprise” recently when the New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission singled out the
local power company for further investigation of its poor response to the December 2008
ice storm.
We suspect Unitil is alone in its surprise.
Unitil serves 40,000 customers in 15 New Hampshire communities. Hampton and Exeter area
Unitil customers remember full well the ineptitude of the utility’s response plan, the
complete lack of communication to both individuals and communities and the rudeness of its
employees responding to customer concerns.
The company was defensive during the storm and it’s disappointing to see that at least some
of its staff continue to respond defensively to suggestions for improvement even a year
later. The company should just stop defending the indefensible, take its lumps, improve
its emergency response plan and move on.
In Massachusetts, where Unitil’s customers are perhaps a little less patient or a little
more litigious, the company faces a class action lawsuit for its poor response.
Here in New Hampshire, it’s probably fair to say we are keeping an open mind and think the
utility has made good faith efforts to improve its emergency response plan.
The proof of Unitil’s claim it has addressed the shortcomings of its response will come
when the next big storm hits.
At that time we will see whether Unitil’s response is on par with PSNH and Central Maine
Power or whether, once again, its customers are left in the dark for a significantly
longer period than the customers of those other local utilities.
Unitil says it has already improved its emergency response plan by hiring an emergency
management director (it’s hard to believe it didn’t already have someone in that position),
installing a software system dedicated to communication with every community it serves,
hiring its own weather forecasting service and doubling its call center capacity for
customers.
Perhaps most important, the company has expanded its ability to bring in outside
restoration crews during an emergency. From the customer level this seems to have been
the greatest difference between Unitil and other utilities. The other utilities were able
to bring in small armies of emergency crews from out of state and then efficiently
dispatch them in an organized manner.
Unitil appeared to have too few crews on the ground and dispatched them erratically.
Unitil’s crews would leave areas when half were still in the dark and often the company
thought streets that were still without power had been restored.
Stratham was a good example of this. The company believed it had restored power to all
but 25 homes in the town when, in fact, 750 homes were still in the dark. The community
watched in horror as the utility crews rolled out of town and fearing for residents’
safety, selectmen called in the National Guard to knock on every door of every home in
town. What they found in some cases were the elderly and infirm struggling to stay warm.
The Public Utilities Commission report went to great pains to separate the lack of a plan
on the part of the company from the honorable efforts of crews sent out to remove trees
and restore the power lines.
This finding is consistent with public sentiment. Anger was never directed at the workers
who went where they were directed to go and restored power as quickly as resources allowed.
The public’s anger came when it was clear there were no organized power restoration or
communication plans.
Inevitably, there will be another major storm that knocks out power and we truly hope at
that time we can write articles showcasing Unitil’s great response and editorials singing
the company’s praises.
– The Portsmouth Herald