HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 3390        FILED ON: 1/14/2009

HOUSE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 3066

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_______________

In the Year Two Thousand Nine

_______________

An Act Further Regulating Distribution Companies..

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1.  Whenever a power outage occurs that is designated as an emergency by the governor, the distribution company defined for the service territory of the power outage by the department of telecommunications and energy shall immediately undertake restoration of power.  A company that fails to restore power because of negligence, inadequate personnel, and poor workmanship or ignores the outage shall be subject to a fine, imposed by the department of $100,000 for each day power is not restored due to any of the above factors.

A company that fails to restore power within 5 days by a reason of any of the above factors may be terminated by the department if a successor is ready, willing and able to service the territory.

1 B ½. Said fine shall not be paid by rate payers of the distribution company, and shall not be included in the calculation of any subsequent rates approved by department of public utilities and paid by the rate payers of the distribution company.