Refunds en route from CL&P

Response was ‘overwhelming’The deadline for refund requests to Connecticut Light and Power (CL&P) was Feb. 2 and the electric company reports that 192,000 customers will see a credit on their bills.“The response was overwhelming,” said CL&P spokesperson Mitch Gross. “We had a response rate of 85 percent; the normal response rate to something like this is 20 percent.”The refunds follow statewide power outages during the October snowstorm. Of 225,000 customers who were affected, Gross said that 192,000 will receive the credit. He said the company did not break the responses down by region so he does not know how many of the refunds will go to Northwest Corner customers.The credit is a flat $140.22. It will be listed in the Account Summary section of the February bill and will be listed as October Snowstorm Credit. Meanwhile, Gross said, the power company is continuing its efforts to be ready for the next big storm, whenever that might be and whatever that might look like.Tree trimming is continuing.“We always trim all the time but we’ve ramped it up,” Gross said. The power company is also meeting with officials in all the towns served by CL&P and has had recommendations from a panel convened by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.“We’ve met with every municipality we serve and we’re having conversations with regulators and customers,” he said. “We’re all in it together to prepare for the next storm,” Gross said. “And there will be a next storm.”During the October storm, many customers questioned why the power lines are still above ground and not buried. The power company is exploring the option of shifting to underground cables, Gross said, but he warned that there is an enormous cost to change the remaining above-ground lines. “And it’s not the ultimate answer by any stretch,” he said. “There are problems with the underground lines, too, and when they occur it takes longer to find and fix them. It might make sense in some areas, such as town centers, but it all comes with a cost.”Many of the areas with underground lines also lost power during the October storm, he noted.

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