[JViello]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Completely agree.

Ditto.

Originally Posted by Konig1985

Are you guys willing to pay a one time fee to get your power lines underground? If everyone is willing to do this then rates should go down in the long term.

No. It will be a fiasco and budgetary nightmare. I'd prefer they cut trees within 20 feet of the wires. I live on top of a mountain and it's all ledge. They can't run water or sewer because the costs will be astronomical. They just spent 3 weeks blasting and hammering for a foundation down the street.

Originally Posted by adamz

I say let them eat the costs- businesses are not guaranteed a certain level of profit.

In CT, this one most certainly is by your government.

And I'm not sure where you got that 3 billion dollar number. CLP made 158 million in 2010. That's not a huge number in relation to their company size...and considering they are out 400 million from this storm alone.

[Arm&Hammer]

I read the gov is thinking of putting the power line to be in ground?

[Stylo]

How about UI? Any news on rates?

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Arm&Hammer

I read the gov is thinking of putting the power line to be in ground?

Wow, that's very nice of him.

[adamz]

Originally Posted by JViello

Ditto.

In CT, this one most certainly is by your government.

And I'm not sure where you got that 3 billion dollar number. CLP made 158 million in 2010. That's not a huge number in relation to their company size...and considering they are out 400 million from this storm alone.

I think you're right... the article I skimmed (my bad) said "revenue" of $3 billion, and implies that CLP made ~15% profit on that.

It's a very interesting article, actually, and it mentions that CLP cut maintenance outlays by 26% last year... I wonder if that had anything to do with the massive outages?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/bu...r-failure.html

Point still stands: businesses are not guaranteed to make a profit.

I have to ask: is turning everything around to point blame at government a reflex with you? Where did that come from?

[JViello]

Originally Posted by adamz

I think you're right... the article I skimmed (my bad) said "revenue" of $3 billion, and implies that CLP made ~15% profit on that.

It's a very interesting article, actually, and it mentions that CLP cut maintenance outlays by 26% last year... I wonder if that had anything to do with the massive outages?

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/04/bu...r-failure.html

Point still stands: businesses are not guaranteed to make a profit.

I have to ask: is turning everything around to point blame at government a reflex with you? Where did that come from?

Yea that sound about right, and I'm sure reducing workforce didn't help.

I agree that no one should be guaranteed to make a profit, that's kind of my point in pointing out that they are and that this regulated beast is just that.

It's not a reflex at all regarding government, it's a calculated and thought out response. I just think many people don't think about just how intrusive, "political" and corrupt it's gotten. Specifically with CLP. Most people I talk to have no idea the very government they are looking to to fix the problem, was very much part OF the problem. It's a CT disease. "The government should do something". It seems to be the go to and a "reflex" in this state...yet the same people complain about tax increases and/or are completely ignorant to the back room politics that take place and/or the cronyism that goes on when they put that kind of power in the government's hand.

I don't give the corporations a pass and I don't give the government a pass either. However, of the two, the government wields MUCH more power and control.

[anthonyfromMA]

I'm in Broad Brook/East Windsor and it took 8 days to get power back.

It was a crew from Quebec that was the first we saw on our road.

I think the biggest problem is that a lot of the crews may have been milking this for the first few days to make extra money.

Not sure what they were being paid, but I'm guessing it wasn't a paltry sum.

Also, I'm not saying every crew out there was milking it, nor do I deny their work is skilled labor and they're entitled to a good wage. But I saw a LOT of gatherings of workers where there'd be 8-12 people just huddled around, drinking coffee, etc. There was definitely a lot of waste and inefficiency taking place.

It's pretty obvious many of the workers will look to make as much as possible in this situation, and that the companies involved will just pass the cost onto the consumer.

There was never any doubt in my mind that we were going to eat this cost. I'll be switching to another supplier from CL&P to at least lock in a lower rate.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by anthonyfromMA

There was never any doubt in my mind that we were going to eat this cost. I'll be switching to another supplier from CL&P to at least lock in a lower rate.

It doesn't matter. There are two sides to electricity billing in CT. Delivery/Facilities and generation. CLP still "delivers" the service over their facilities, even with another generation supplier. Your "delivery" charge will go up, even if your per KW usage rate is lower and provided by a company that makes it out of farts and sunshine.

That's what will increase.

[anthonyfromMA]

Originally Posted by JViello

It doesn't matter. There are two sides to electricity billing in CT. Delivery/Facilities and generation. CLP still "delivers" the service over their facilities, even with another generation supplier. Your "delivery" charge will go up, even if your per KW usage rate is lower and provided by a company that makes it out of farts and sunshine.

That's what will increase.

Well, it'll still notch off 10 bucks or something per month, better than nothing at least.

With any luck a ton of solar panels will "fall off the back of a truck" and I can get those installed at our house

[CTbrooktrout]

Interesting article to read regarding the unions and CL&P management:

CT News Junkie | Some Union Officials Unhappy With Storm Response

But even during Gloria, which took out power to more than half of CL&P’s customers back in 1985, 50 percent were restored within 44 hours, Cirillo pointed out. During the October storm few customers had been restored within the first 48 hours.

Cirillo said not much has changed over the years. The job the linemen do what they did several decades ago.

He said / she said...

“Previous to 2009 linemen have worked 18 to 20 hour days,” Unikas said. Now they are expected to work 16 hours with a mandatory eight hour rest period.

He said the reason they had a bigger window of time to work is because if they restored power to a neighborhood and one customer was still out of power they would work to make sure the lights were restored for two reasons. “One, we didn’t want to leave you in the dark, and two we didn’t want to have to send a crew back there the next day wasting all that time,“ he said.

He said 18 to 20 hours days and six hour rest periods were typical when he was a lineman.

Mitch Gross, spokesman for CL&P, said Friday that’s not true. He said it’s a safety issue and the 16/8 policy has always been the company’s policy even before Mr. Butler arrived.