This marks the second unsuccessful attempt to enact the legislation.

NEWPORT — A bill heralded by Lt. Gov. Daniel McKee that he argued would hold National Grid accountable in the wake of emergency outages, like the natural gas crisis in Newport and Middletown last January, did not become law this past session.

The legislation did not get a full floor vote after it failed to get out of the Senate and House committees that scrutinized it. This marks the second unsuccessful attempt to enact the legislation. McKee first introduced it after an October 2017 storm knocked out electricity to about 150,000 National Grid customers in Rhode Island.

According to a description of the bill it would have established standards to ensure that National Grid restores service in a “safe and reasonably prompt manner after a significant outage or service interruption.”

National Grid would have been required to annually submit to the state Division of Public Utilities and Carriers an emergency response plan. The mandated plan would include a system for communicating with customers and procedures, the individuals responsible for communicating with local and state authorities and an explanation of how the company would restore service.

The division would have the authority to open investigations into a utility’s emergency response to an outage. If the division determined the company violated “any of the prescribed standards of acceptable performance,” it shall impose a fine of $100,000 for each day the violation persists, with a maximum penalty of $7.5 million per incident.

If the division found that the length of the outage was “materially longer” than it should have been because of a fault in the company’s response, the division shall recommend the Public Utilities Commission deny the company’s request to be made whole for the costs it incurred in restoring service by raising customers’ rates.

Gov. Gina Raimondo said the fine structure mirrored laws already passed in Massachusetts and New York, where National Grid also operates.

A National Grid lobbyist, Frank McMahon, said during a hearing on the bill by the House Corporations Committee that the company opposed the bill. He said there were important discrepancies between the legislation in Rhode Island and the law in Massachusetts.

"Our legal counsel reviewed the claims made by National Grid and we determined that the claims were wholly misleading," said Andrea Palagi, the communications director for McKee. "Some minor differences between the proposed legislation and Massachusetts law were due to structural differences in the duties and powers of each state’s regulatory agencies (i.e. Rhode Island’s Public Utilities Commission and Division of Public Utilities and Carriers vs. Massachusetts’ Department of Public Utilities) and the size of the customer base in each state."

Following the hearing by the House Corporations Committee on Feb. 26, McKee introduced an updated version that was the focus of the press conference on May 3 at the Gateway Visitors Center. That version "strengthens the state’s ability to demand greater accountability from National Grid and offers protections specific to emergency situations like the Newport gas outage," Palagi said.

McKee, who vowed to re-file the bill in the next session, said in an email response to questions from The Daily News that he was “disappointed that National Grid opposed this pro-consumer, pro-business and pro-public safety legislation.

“Massachusetts holds its utility companies — including National Grid — accountable when they are responsible for major power outages or if their response to an outage is insufficient. Rhode Island should do the same. Ratepayers in our state deserve the same common sense protections as ratepayers in Massachusetts and other states that have taken similar measures to protect families and businesses.”

National Grid already has emergency response plans as a part of its standard operating procedures in Rhode Island, said Ted Kresse, the director of communications for National Grid in Rhode Island.

"Throughout the year, we conduct training, exercises and drills to evaluate the effectiveness of our [emergency response plans] as well as review and update the plans each year," he wrote in an email to The Daily News. "Prior to and during any major weather events, we provide the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers and other state agencies details about our preparations, additional crews secured and our restoration efforts in real time. Our plans reflect and reinforce our commitment to our customers and the communities we serve and enhance our ability to provide safe and reliable energy services.”

The division is still investigating “any conditions that may have contributed to” the natural gas outage that affected around 7,000 National Grid customers in Newport and Middletown last January. Its regulatory authority covers National Grid’s distribution system, but not Enbridge Inc., the company that owns and operates the Algonquin transmission pipeline that supplies National Grid.

Completion of the report has been targeted by September and no later than November, Kevin Lynch, the acting director of the division, previously said.

dgomes@newportri.com