General Assembly Raised Bill No. 937
January Session, 2021 LCO No. 3927
Referred to Committee on ENERGY AND TECHNOLOGY
Introduced by:
(ET)
AN ACT CONCERNING EMERGENCY RESPONSE PLANNING AND
VIDEO SERVICE WIRE REMOVAL.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Assembly convened:
1 Section 1. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2021) (a) As used in this section:
2 (1) "Critical infrastructure" has the same meaning as provided in
3 section 12-39p of the general statutes;
4 (2) "Electric distribution company" has the same meaning as
5 provided in section 16-1 of the general statutes;
6 (3) "Electric distribution services" has the same meaning as provided
7 in section 16-1 of the general statutes;
8 (4) "Emergency" has the same meaning as provided in subdivision (1)
9 of subsection (a) of section 16-32e of the general statutes;
10 (5) "Make-safe action" means the clearing of downed electric wires
11 that endanger the life, safety or property of any individual; and
12 (6) "Make-safe crew" means the crew performing the make-safe
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13 action.
14 (b) On or before October 1, 2021, the Public Utilities Regulatory
15 Authority shall initiate a proceeding to investigate, develop and adopt
16 a deployment process for electric distribution company make-safe
17 crews after an emergency. Such deployment process shall: (1) Establish
18 the composition of make-safe crews; (2) determine the circumstances
19 when each electric distribution company shall provide make-safe crews
20 to each municipality in the state; and (3) determine the minimum
21 number of make-safe crews needed for each municipality based upon
22 such municipality's roads, population and critical infrastructure.
23 (c) On or before January 1, 2022, each electric distribution company
24 shall develop an emergency response plan. Said emergency response
25 plan shall: (1) Demonstrate to the authority such company's capacity to
26 increase such company's field workforce by at least five hundred per
27 cent during an emergency, including an increase in corresponding
28 customer service functions; (2) demonstrate to the authority such
29 company's ability to respond to a category three hurricane, as
30 determined by the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale; (3) provide
31 each municipality with accurate, up-to-date information including, but
32 not limited to, damage assessments, circuit damage, utility pole
33 damage, infrastructure damage affecting electric distribution services
34 and crew locations; and (4) not later than one hundred twenty minutes
35 after opening an emergency operations center, provide up-to-date
36 geographic information systems data on any service outages in the
37 municipality.
38 (d) On or before January 1, 2022, each electric distribution company
39 shall develop a liaison program for use in connection with such
40 company's deployed make-safe crews. Such liaison program shall: (1)
41 Assign a dedicated liaison and an alternate liaison for each municipality
42 within the state; (2) establish a training program for such dedicated
43 liaison; (3) require the deployment of such liaison whenever such
44 company utilizes make-safe crews; (4) require that each dedicated
45 liaison possess specific and detailed knowledge of the electric grid in
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46 such liaison's assigned municipality; (5) require such dedicated liaison
47 to report to any emergency operations center, if requested by the chief
48 executive officer of the municipality; and (6) provide accurate and up-
49 to-date information to each municipality regarding the timeframe for
50 power restoration.
51 Sec. 2. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2021) (a) As used in this section,
52 "community antenna television company" and "certified competitive
53 video service provider" have the same meanings as provided in section
54 16-1 of the general statutes.
55 (b) Not later than thirty days after a residential or commercial
56 customer terminates service with a community antenna television
57 company or certified competitive video service provider, such entities
58 shall remove all associated wire from the residential or commercial
59 property and the public utility pole relaying such wire to the property.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following
sections:
Section 1 July 1, 2021 New section
Sec. 2 July 1, 2021 New section
Statement of Purpose:
To create a deployment process and response plan following an
emergency involving power outages and to require the removal of video
service wire from residential and commercial properties.
[Proposed deletions are enclosed in brackets. Proposed additions are indicated by underline, except
that when the entire text of a bill or resolution or a section of a bill or resolution is new, it is not
underlined.]
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