Hartford - Two Democratic lawmakers are proposing legislation that would set requirements for power companies to follow in regard to electric outages and serving ratepayers.

If a utility failed to follow the new state rules, the company's shareholders would face fines.

House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden is proposing the bill with state Rep. Vickie Nardello of Prospect, a co-chair of the energy and technology committee.

The two representatives say the lackluster response by Connecticut Light & Power to last weekend's snowstorm and to Tropical Storm Irene this summer demonstrates the need for the legislation.

More than a half-million CL&P customers were still without power Wednesday, four days after the snowstorm. Thousands of households in southeastern Connecticut were powerless for more than a week following Irene.

The proposed bill would be introduced in the legislature's 2012 session and apply to all Connecticut utility companies. As envisioned by the two lawmakers, the bill would direct the state's Public Utilities Regulatory Authority to craft standards of acceptable performance for the utilities.

Nardello said that she anticipates having recommendations to the authority for these standards by the middle of next week.

"If [utilities] meet the service requirements … then there will be no necessity for a fine," Nardello said.

She said the legislation would be similar to that which Massachusetts enacted in 2009 after an ice storm that left households without power for two weeks. That law requires utilities to submit annual emergency response plans to state regulators and carries penalties of up to $1 million per violation. It also gives state regulators the authority to order an alternative utility company to deploy equipment and personnel to restore power to customers whose primary utility can't do the job fast enough.

"These standards are in place in Massachusetts, and the restoration efforts in Massachusetts have been much quicker than in Connecticut," Nardello said. "Whether or not it's been specifically because of the standards, I don't know, but it could have been a factor."

A CL&P spokeswoman said that the utility is on board with the Democrats' proposal.

"Our commitment is to doing the right thing for our customers, so we support the idea," spokeswoman Janine Saunders said. "As long as the measures are fairly established, this will provide everyone with a baseline of data from which we can all draw our conclusions."

j.reindl@theday.com