Rell: CL&P taking too long to get power back

Zero was the only figure Gov. M. Jodi Rell was interested in getting Thursday from the Connecticut Light & Power Co. when it came to outages still remaining after last weekend's pounding storm.

Rell said in a statement Thursday night that she spoke directly with CL&P President and Chief Operating Officer Jeffrey Butler and told him that 7,700 power outages remaining three days after the heavy rain and wind storms hit Connecticut was 7,700 too many. The nor'easter, which started Saturday, led to three deaths and left hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses without power. Greenwich and other southwestern Connecticut towns were the hardest hit by the storm.

Butler and other top managers assured the governor that a number of concrete steps were being taken, including restoring primary distribution lines by today and keeping every crew on the job until that happened. Rell has also asked New Haven-based United Illuminating, the state's other major utility, to help CL&P where possible.

Nonetheless, Rell expressed frustration with the amount of time it was taking to restore power to everyone.

"Families and businesses have been living in limbo for almost a week," Rell said. "This was clearly a major storm, and a proportionately massive response was in order. What I have seen to date does not meet that description. ... These are all steps in the right direction, but the bottom line is getting the number of customers without power down to zero. I will not be satisfied until that is accomplished."

By midnight Thursday, the number of outages had been reduced to 3,358.

In response to Rell, CL&P said in an e-mailed statement, "We understand the governor's frustration. As was noted in her press release, this was a severe storm with extensive destruction, in fact it is the worst storm to hit southwest Connecticut in 25 years. We are continuing to dedicate every available resource to safely restore power to all of our customers as quickly as possible."

At Rell's direction Tuesday, the state began investigating complaints about delays not only by CL&P but by United Illuminating in handling responses to falling debris, downed lines and power restoration both during and after the storm.

The Day first reported Tuesday that the state Department of Public Utility Control would be investigating 20 complaints, including some from CL&P unionized linesmen who said the delays were prompted in part by the company's interest in not paying double time for extended work shifts. CL&P denied the union's charges.

United Illuminating, which serves about 323,000 customers compared with CL&P's 1.2 million, had reduced its outages to 51 by Wednesday. A call to the New Haven utility Thursday was not returned.

Butler also told Rell that CL&P has installed 500 new utility poles since the storm and has placed one of its employees in every town's emergency operations center to make sure there are no more communications breakdowns, the governor said.

Also Thursday, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal widened his own investigation, saying it would complement and "support" Rell's, and would include AT&T.

On Wednesday, an AT&T union official charged that that firm's work force was not used to full capacity in responding to phone-line outages during the storm. AT&T disputed the claim, saying the company brought in line crews from all over the state to help restore phone lines.

The DPUC and Emergency Management & Homeland Security are in charge of Rell's lead investigation. The governor's probe might include AT&T when and if the DPUC receives a complaint from the union president or anyone else, said DPUC spokesman Phil Dukes. As of Thursday, no complaints had been received, he said.

In addition to Rell's probe of CL&P and United Illuminating, the DPUC will review repair, equipment and labor-related storm costs as a standard part of a rate case for CL&P that is already under way, said Dukes.

Apart from the many personal messages about the utilities' delayed storm response that Blumenthal, who lives in Greenwich, has received, the attorney general said his office has received between 30 and 50 complaints from workers, families and public officials.

p.daddona@theday.com