Westchester County Power Outages
Recent Events: In February, 2007, Department Staff issued their Report on Con Edison's Performance during the July and September 2006 storms that caused power outages in Westchester County.
Background: In July and September, 2006, Con Edison's electric system experienced problems that resulted in the customer outages in portions of Westchester County. The Commission initiated an analysis and investigation of causes and responses to the Con Edison outages (Case 06-E-1158). The purpose of the investigation is to assess the need for changes to Con Edison's practices and procedures to avoid similar failures and outages in the future, and the costs incurred by Con Edison related to these failures and outages.
In addition, the Commission initiated a proceeding on September 8, 2006 to conduct an independent audit of Con Edison's system wide operations, practices and procedures as they relate to emergency planning, response to outages and restoration of service (Case 06-M-1078). The audit will be performed by a consultant managed by Department of Public Service Staff.
Public Comments: In October, 2006 the Commission held a series of public statement hearings to receive comments from the public and interested parties regarding the outages. The Commission was and is particularly interested in comments from customers that address the following questions:
- How were you affected by the outages?
- Do you think you received timely, accurate and adequate information from Con Edison or otherwise about what was happening before, during and after the service outages?
- Did you attempt to contact the company for information or assistance immediately before, during or after the outages, and did you get what you were requesting?
- What are your overall impressions about how the company responded to the outages and your reasons for those impressions?
- What are your recommendations about actions you believe the company should or should not have taken before, during and after the service interruptions?
- What actions do you recommend the Commission take in light of all that you know about these events?
In addition, you can file your comments on-line here.
Commission Documents for this Case:- October 4, 2006 - Press Release - PSC Announces Hearings Regarding Westchester County Power Outage
- October 3, 2006 - Notice of Public Statement Hearings on Recent Outages in Westchester County
