Senate Bill S2439

                                 BILL NUMBER:  S2439

 TITLE OF BILL :  An act to amend the public service law, in relation
to requiring the public service commission to establish standards of
acceptable performance for electric corporations

 PURPOSE OF BILL :

This bill would require the public service commission to establish
standards for gas and electric corporations in the event of a power
outage.

 SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS :

Section 66 of the public service law would be amended by adding a new
subdivision 2-b

Section 1 - Gives the public service commission the power to establish
performance standards for gas and electric corporations in the event
of a power outage.

Section 1(a) - Performance standards shall be based on the foreseeable
nature of the outage and the number of customers affected.

Section 1(b) - Corporations found to be in violation of the standards
set forth by the public service commission shall be penalized for each
              

violation in a manner which the commission deems just and proper.

Section 1(c)- Penalties shall include but not be limited to a credit
for each customer of the amount of money charged for one kilowatt hour
for each kilowatt hour of service outage.

Section 2 - This act shall take effect immediately.

 JUSTIFICATION :

On October 29, 2011 the Northeast was hit with a powerful snow storm
affecting more than 2 million homes and businesses and causing the
deaths of at least three people. More than 2.3 million customers lost
power, and firms were bringing in crews from other states to help
restore it. Governor Andrew Cuomo, declared a state of emergency for
13 counties.

Although there was no way to prevent the storm, this early winter snow
fall turned into outrage when thousands of utility customers reported
no power well into the month of November. Many New Yorkers complained
that the response time of the utility companies begged for
improvement.

Outraged by utility response time, our neighboring states of
Connecticut and Pennsylvania plan to introduce legislation creating
standards of acceptable performance modeled after Massachusetts law.
The state of Massachusetts enacted legislation in 2009 in the wake of
lackadaisical utility response to an ice storm that year.

New York should follow in our neighboring states' footsteps to ensure
that our residents are not without power for an unreasonable amount of
time due to unacceptable performance by our utility companies.

This bill would allow the Public Service Commission to create
standards of acceptable performance for utility companies with respect
to serving customers and power restoration following outages.
Establishing these standards to provide a blueprint to our utility
companies for acceptable response time. Failure to meet those
standards would result in penalties for the utility company and
reimbursement to the customers affected.
 LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :

2015-2016:S.1389-Died in Energy & Telecom
2013-2014:S.710-Died in Energy & Telecom
2011-2012:S.6094-Died in Energy & Telecom

 FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS :

None.

 EFFECTIVE DATE :
This act shall take effect immediately.