Politics & Government

State Hires Special Consultant to Probe Utilities' Response to Hurricane Irene

Of special interest: how utilities planned, restored power, and communicated with local officials and customers.

By Tom Johnson of NJSpotlight.com

The state is broadening its investigation into how New Jersey's four electric utilities handled events in the wake of , a storm that left 1.8 million people without power at one point or another.

Acting on a recommendation from staff, the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) authorized the hiring of a special consultant to analyze how the utilities planned, executed restoration efforts, and communicated with local officials and their customers during the days following the storm -- which has been described by one official as the worst weather-related event for electric utilities in the state's history.

Find out what's happening in Manalapanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The decision to retain a consultant comes even before the agency has concluded a series of on the utilities' response to the storm, which left tens of thousands of their customers without power for up to a week, and some, for as long as nine days.

Most of the public ire during the hearings to date has been targeted at the state's second largest utility, Jersey Central Power & Light. Two-thirds of its more than 1 million customers lost power at some point during the storm.

Find out what's happening in Manalapanwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Public Anger

The hearings, ordered by Gov. Chris Christie in the wake of widespread anger about how long it took utilities to bring the lights back on could lead to regulatory changes and recommendations to adopt so-called standardized best practices to prevent the same problems from occurring during future storms.

Hurricane Irene was the first storm of its kind to make landfall in New Jersey since 1904, a fact that caused significant and widespread damage throughout JCP&L's 13-county territory. The company had more than 4,500 utility and contractors working on restoring service; 70 percent of nearly 700,000 customers had their power back within 48 hours.

Beyond living without electricity for several days, customers and local officials have been particularly critical of the utility for its lackluster communication with elected officials and ratepayers, leaving both in the dark about when and where power would be restored.

Read more at NJSpotlight.com


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