CONCORD — The millions of dollars utility companies are spending to restore power to their customers will mostly be paid for by the customers themselves.
How much they will pay and for how long remains to be seen.
Tom Frantz, director of the Public Utilities Commission's electric division, said his office will meet soon with the state's four utility companies to discuss that very subject.
"It's an important issue, and we will be looking at that ... but our priority has been — and concern is — getting all the customers in the state their power back as quickly and safely as possible," he said.
As of last night, Public Service of New Hampshire reported it was down to 41,000 outages statewide. New Hampshire Electric Co-op had 562 customers out statewide.
"We haven't seen any numbers yet, but I am guessing it's been one of the most expensive restoration projects in New Hampshire utility history — just based on the outages and magnitude of it," Frantz said.
He refused to comment on what limits, if any, power companies are held to when it comes to passing on repair costs to customers.
Frantz said it's important for customers to understand they already are paying for a number of improvement projects and maintenance such as tree trimming throughout the year. He said he has been pleased with the massive effort by power companies who have brought in personnel from as far away as Ohio and Pennsylvania to assist with repairs.
Electric companies would have to file with the state Public Utilities Commission in order to request a rate change for consumers. So far, no one has filed such a request.
Executives with the state's four power companies have been largely circumspect about how much the cleanup will cost, while acknowledging the amount of damage to their infrastructure is unprecedented. Power companies said the storm has hit some core pieces of their infrastructure not usually damaged by storms.
Only Public Service of New Hampshire is beginning to give a glimpse of what's estimated to be a multimillion-dollar repair project.
"We don't know the precise cost yet, but it's in excess of $10 million already," PSNH President Gary Long said yesterday. "When it comes to the storm, restoration is the priority. The primary (goal) is to do whatever it takes, but it will certainly be in excess of $10 million."
But Long said customers won't have to worry about a sudden spike in rates.
"We try to spread these costs over a number of years, and we actually have insurance," Long said. "And we will certainly go beyond our deductibles, so it's a combination of insurance and customers (paying for it), so they won't see a spike in rates."
The federal government may actually help buffer some of the cost for customers of NH Electric Co-op as well, which has customers in Kingston, Derry, Chester and Sandown.
Jim Van Dongen, public information officer with the Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said yesterday the electric cooperative might qualify for aid because it is a nonprofit organization. No estimate has been given on the amount of aid possible.
He said the majority of the assistance might go to the northern part of the state, where the bulk of the utility company's customers are located, but acknowledged some money could go to those in Southern New Hampshire as well.
George Gantz, a senior vice president at Unitil, said his company has no estimate on the cost of its repairs.
"We don't know and nobody has been asking that question, and we have not paid any attention to it," Gantz said. "This is an expensive proposition, but our first job is to get people back (online)."
But he said the costs will be passed on to customers at some point, most likely when his company appears before the state's Public Utilities Commission for a rate change. No plans have been made to ask for an increased rate, he said.
Gantz described the loss of power lines, circuits and other components of their network as unprecedented, based on what their line crews are telling them.
"These are experienced crews and they've said they have never seen anything like this," Gantz said. "We usually have a storm that comes along and it will take down a circuit, a couple of sections of poles. So, the process is you repair the pole, restring the wire and you're done. Instead, we have poles down, the cross wire and transformer is on the ground and then it's not just one section on a circuit, it's 10 sections on the circuit."
The storm has taught the utility companies some lessons as well. Long, of PSNH, said one thing his company hopes to expand on is more community outreach and finding better ways to quickly grasp a town-by-town breakdown of outages.
PSNH used the social-networking tool Twitter to update the public about how many outages remained in each town they served.
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