RG&E and NYSEG will pay $3.9 million to satisfy 2017 windstorm violations

RG&E and NYSEG must dip into corporate profits to pay $3.9 million to resolve a state investigation that found the companies mishandled their response to the ferocious March 2017 windstorm.

The funds will be used to improve the companies' readiness for future storms.

The sister utilities were accused of failing to implement their own emergency plans properly after winds knocked out power to more than 170,000 customers on March 8 last year.

An investigation by the state Public Service Commission found they did not assess damage or prioritize restoration efforts properly, failed to protect the public from downed live wires, didn't communicate enough with customers on life-support systems, and proved incapable of providing accurate restoration times to customers without power.

Regulators found Rochester Gas and Electric Corp. committed eight violations of its storm response plan, and New York State Electric & Gas committed four violations.

Power wasn't fully restored until a week after the storm.

RG&E and NYSEG, which combined have about 1.25 million electric customers in upstate New York, are owned by Spanish energy giant Iberdrola SA.

A proposed settlement agreement, filed Friday with the PSC, does not require the companies to pay a fine to the state to resolve the violations.

Instead, they must invest the $3.9 million in a series of projects to “increase resiliency and improve emergency responses in the areas impacted by the March windstorm,” according to the settlement papers.

For example, RG&E will spend $1.25 million to install utility poles made of composite material such as fiberglass, which are considered a more durable alternative to traditional wooden poles. Nearly $1 million more will be spent to install thicker, stronger wooden poles at certain locations in the city.

More than 900 poles, most of them wood, snapped or fell over during the windstorm.

Two other projects would invest $150,000 to provide backup batteries and better communications with people who rely on life-sustaining electrically powered equipment in their homes.

The settlement has been agreed to by the companies and the PSC staff, though the commission itself must still approve it. A spokesman said it was the first settlement under the agency's enhanced storm-response review powers.

The city of Rochester, whose residents were significantly impacted by the outage, has already signed off on the agreement. So has International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 10, which represents many of the company's employees.

The funds will not come from ratepayers but from shareholder profits instead. Seventy-two percent of the power outages occurred in RG&E's service territory, and 72 percent of the costs will be attributable to RG&E.

From the PSC: Proposed settlement and list of projects

SORR@Gannett.com