About $100 Each to Customers in ’06 Blackout

24. April 2008 by admin.

Take $100.00 off the regular price of a diesel generator when you mention this news story.

Customers in western Queens can expect to receive about $100 each from Consolidated Edison as compensation for having to sweat through nine days without power in July 2006, according to officials who have been briefed on the settlement.

The approval of the settlement, which the utility proposed several weeks ago and which will total $17 million, was to be announced at a news conference on Thursday.

Customers will receive a credit on their monthly bill, which will also include a brief apology from the company.

Additionally, Con Edison will not be allowed to charge customers to recoup $40 million in repair costs from the blackout, according to the officials briefed on the matter.

The recompense and the ruling on repair costs follow an investigation by the state’s Public Service Commission into the failure of the electrical network in Long Island City during a period in July 2006, which affected an estimated 174,000 customers.

The terms of the proposed settlement were reported in The Daily News this month.

Officials with Con Ed and the Public Service Commission declined to comment on Wednesday.

The results of the investigation were to be announced at a news conference that will include representatives of Western Queens Power for the People Campaign, a group of residents that formed during the blackout.

Memories of the power failure are still raw in Queens, where residents were forced to abandon their homes and businesses and ferry medicine and food to friends and relatives who were unable to navigate the stairs in their apartment buildings.

The damages and the apology will only partly satisfy the lawmakers and community groups that have been fighting with Con Ed, and its chief executive, Kevin Burke, over their handling of the crisis.

“Kevin Burke makes $100 for every two minutes he works,” said State Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, who represents Astoria, Queens, but was not privy to the terms of the settlement. “For Con Ed to provide a mere $100 for the millions of dollars in damages to this community is a slap in the face.”

According to a filing to securities regulators made by Con Ed on Friday, Mr. Burke received $5.52 million in compensation last year, nearly $800,000 more than in 2006.

In May, Mr. Gianaris proposed in a bill that the Public Service Law be changed to make it easier for customers to recoup damages from gas and electric companies.

News of Mr. Burke’s pay package and the ratepayer compensation settlement come just a month after Con Ed won the biggest one-time increase in its bills for electric service.

Despite criticism from lawmakers and residents over repeated failures at Con Ed, state regulators approved a $425 million increase in rates.

That means a typical household in New York City will pay about $4.25 more this month.

In Westchester County, typical residential customers will pay an additional $5.60 a month.

The rate increase is far less than the $1.2 billion increase that Con Ed initially sought.

Posted in USA News, News | Print | No Comments »