Posted by Dennis Herrick on January 11, 2010 at 08:33:13:
Unitil, your downed wires, poles and transformers were a threat to the safety of the community. You may be a "public" utility, but the public doesn't own your equipment. You and you alone were responsible for it. You should have at a minimum taken care of your customers that were medically "at risk", instead you cut them loose. You should have immediately sent out teams to help towns and cities determine whether downed wires were hot so roadways could be cleared so emergency vehicles could pass. What was the matter with you? Please explain in detail. And what's up with the lies about the nature of the event and how repairs were going? Whose ass are you trying to cover? They should be fired immediately.
Doesn't look like Selectman Sherman made any headway. There was no discussion. This is what happens when justice gets delayed. It's the New Hampshire way. Unitil wants us all to forget about the 2008 ice storm and Unitil is getting just what it wants in NH. At a minimum there should be a demand for adding quality-of-service requirements in Unitil's tariff? It's a missed opportunity.
From the Dec 14th 2009 Plaistow Board of Selectmens meeting:
J. Sherman discussed PUC (Public Utilities Commission) having issued their report and it being on their web site: www.puc.nh.gov.
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Read the report. There are some very interesting comments in Unitil's rebuttal.
Seems Unitil feels that they don't have to respond to an emergency until THEY determine that conditions are safe for their workers. What cowards! We don't own the poles, transformers, and electrical wires. They're the responsibility of the utility. And if they're a safety hazard we demand an immediate response. How long will it take next time for them to send out bucket trucks and line men to help local fire, police and highway departments determine if downed lines are hot. Will it be 3 days or will it be 6? Unitil is a continuing public relations nightmare.
Unitil's Rebuttal to NEI's Recommendations
1. Page VII-3, Recommendation #3:
“At the first indication of a storm, a utility should preposition its restoration
workforce, which should include damage assessors and crews. The initial damage
assessments should begin as soon as possible after a storm has passed and should
be used to develop initial restoration time estimates.”
Unitil Comment:
The experience Unitil had in the 2008 ice storm would indicate that prepositioning
of crews would have been a dangerous decision. In addition, due to
travel difficulties, it would have been impossible to complete any damage
assessment until several days after the storm had concluded.
5. Page III-24, Recommendation 11, first bullet:
“Each electric utility should use the December 2008 ice storm as a model and
determine the number of damage assessors that would be required to perform a
detailed damage assessment within 24 hours.
Unitil Comment:
This is an unrealistic expectation. Detailed damage assessment cannot be
completed until several days after the event concludes as damage may continue to
occur, and travel condition and road obstacles may prevent damage assessment
from being completed. It is impractical to expect that detailed damage assessment
be completed prior to 36-48 hours after the conclusion of any storm related event.
In the December ice storm, it took the towns in some cases 2-3 days to even open
roads to allow vehicles to pass. Trees continued to fall and limbs were still
breaking, and travel was treacherous in places. Damage assessment could not
have been completed within the first 24 hours even with additional damage
assessors.