At the end of May Rhode Island Energy purchased National Grid, and since then my power has failed three times (the weather was fine). The first two events were at night and my entire neighborhood was affected. The second surge blew out the carbon dioxide/smoke alarm above my bed at about 3am, blaring “fire, fire . . .” So that was fun. But I’m sure the RI Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is keeping an eye on things.
Oh wait, turns out that National Grid had been intentionally ripping off its customers for eight years! (ProJo 6.29.22)
National Grid intentionally manipulated invoices in the state’s energy-efficiency program to earn higher profits, costing Rhode Islanders as much as $2.2 million in unearned incentives over an eight-year period.
. . . By misleading state regulators on the achievement of performance targets, National Grid made between $1.4 million and $2.2 million in overpayments. The money was paid out of a fund that is replenished by customer surcharges and regulated by the state.
The current PUC chairman Ron Gerwatowski says they are looking into the situation.
The Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, the commission’s sister agency, is also investigating. Gerwatowski said it would be well within the agencies’ authority to order a forensic audit to see if National Grid’s review found the full extent of the problem.
Gerwatowski also didn’t rule out referring the case to the office of Attorney General Peter Neronha to consider whether criminal charges are warranted.
So I guess we are glad to say goodbye to those people, but how was this not caught in eight years?
I know this an an old(er) post, but we just (07/21 15:30) had our fourth outage, in your neighborhood. It was quick, but enough we need to revisit clocks, Wi-Fi, around the house again.
The real question is how much of this is problems with the new company, and how much is because National Grid knew the extent of their neglect, and was anxious to get rid of the consequences of that neglect, having milked what they could out of us?