Last August, we found that a suggestion in a letter to the editor we recently received might do the trick if lawmakers were to look for a way to get the attention of Eversource executives. By exploring other options for distributing electricity, lawmakers could incentivize the utility giant to improve their game on customer service, storm preparation, and response.
It might even find a better way to power consumers.
Maura J. Casey, whose writings graced these opinion pages when she was an editor and columnist for the Opinion Department, wrote this letter to us, pointing out the superior performance of municipal electricity companies. She suggested that lawmakers make it easier to expand them.
Well, last week the Energy and Technology Committee unanimously tabled a bill to the General Assembly to examine the idea in more detail. If a law were to be enacted to set up a task force to investigate electricity distribution companies – and it should be – a task force would be set up to examine the potential of municipal utilities to expand their coverage areas.
The expansion would have to include the rules for municipal electricity companies to acquire the poles and wires that are now owned by Eversource. The cost of purchasing Eversource’s distribution systems would be enormous, but law and government regulators could prevent excessive fees, and the state could act as a partner in facilitating such enhancements.
The bill was drafted by two representatives of East Connecticut state, the two Republicans, Brian Lanoue from the 45th District and Doug D. Dubitsky from the 47th District. The 45th includes the towns of Griswold, Plainfield, Sterling and Voluntown and the 47th district includes the towns of Canterbury, Chaplin, Franklin, Hampton, Lebanon, Norwich, Scotland and Sprague. Both districts cover parts of Lisbon.
New London County is rich in public utilities. Groton Utilities, Norwich Public Utilities, Bozrah Light & Power, and the Jewett City Department of Public Utilities serve their respective communities. You see fewer outages during storm events, get the power back faster and offer it at lower costs. These systems cover smaller areas, making it easier to aggressively cut trees and maintain infrastructure that local crews know inside out.
Could the municipal utilities continue their strong records if their coverage areas could be expanded? We believe it because their goal is to serve the consumer and put money back into the product, not to enrich the shareholders, and to provide an outrageous level of executive compensation. While the exception in this part of the country is municipal utilities, they are the most common type of electricity supplier in the United States, with around 950 municipal utilities and 853 cooperative utilities.
The private model hasn’t worked wonders in Connecticut, with ongoing complaints of poor storm response and the highest electricity tariffs in the continental United States.
Whether the municipal utilities and the customers they now serve would ever be interested in such extensions is another question, but this bridge can only be crossed once the feasibility has been assessed, which would be the task of the task force. It would have to report its results to the Energy and Technology Committee by January 15, 2022.
This could be the start of a type of public or cooperative utility company serving other areas of the country better and at a lower cost.
“During this extremely stressful time, Eversource irresponsibly raised delivery charges on the backs of hardworking people in the summer,” said Lanoue, who also pointed out the utility company’s poor response to tropical storm Isaias. “The right thing is to look for additional options for the people of this state.”
The task force would include members appointed by the Democratic and Republican leaders of the General Assembly to include electric utilities, public utilities, consumer advocates, a transmission expert, as well as representatives from the Public Utility Regulator, Office of Consumer Counsel and Independent System Operators of the region.
Eversource will not want this proposed bill to go far and it has a strong lobby. Likewise, its origins with two conservative Republicans in a legislature dominated by large democratic majorities are not helpful for the chances of the law. However, we trust that consumers would like a task force to look for new options.
If it is the public that the legislature really wants to serve, it will approve this bill.
The editorial team of the day meets regularly with executives from politics, business and society and meets weekly to formulate editorial positions. It is composed of President and Editor Tim Dwyer, Editor of the editorial page Paul Choiniere, Managing Editor Izaskun E. Larrañeta, Associate Julia Bergman and the retired Deputy Managing Editor Lisa McGinley. However, only the publisher and the editorial page editor are responsible for the development of editorial opinions. The board works independently of the Day Newsroom.
