[Speegleagle]

Originally Posted by davemess10

Is this Stockholm syndrome?

Terrific service the vast majority of the time? Like how homes should expect a week long power outage every 1-2 years? In 2021?

I'm sorry, but I have to question how many other places you have lived if you think Eversource is affordable or does a good job.

Absolutely , I stand by my assessment.

I had one brief power outage over the last several years, I really can’t remember any more than that in the last decade. And if I can’t remember it, it didn’t have a negative affect on my lifestyle.

Having lived elsewhere is irrelevant to me . I am looking at the value I receive as it stands.

My home is around 1100 square feet, ranch, perfect for me , with a finished basement.
I just received my Eversource bill. Probably the coldest month of the winter,
$ 80 Electricity
$ 120 Natural Gas
The thermostat stays at a comfortable level of 68 degrees. Pretty much the temperature on Mars before it’s atmosphere disappeared.
I am retired, home all day , with TVs on and multiple audio systems .

I looked at Solar, not interested . It is ugly and would take much too long for ROI. Plus I am not putting those panels on my beautiful new roof installed two years ago. I own my home and not interested in having a lien either.

[mels]

Originally Posted by Speegleagle

Absolutely , I stand by my assessment.

I had one brief power outage over the last several years, I really can’t remember any more than that in the last decade.

Wow, you have been very lucky! In the past 10 years as an Eversource customer, I can recall having four separate week-long stretches with zero power. That doesn’t count all of the little one-off outages over the years of a couple hours here and there. I just had one of those the other night. Early morning this past Saturday I lost power for 5 hours. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of theirs.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by Brian26

Its expensive to maintain power lines. Lineman are well paid and its up there as one of the most dangerous jobs. The current Eversource union lineman rate is $52/hr. My neighbor is lineman for Eversource and he made 180k last year.

When they call in crews from out of state they are on the clock the second they get in the truck. They are even paid when they are sleeping in the hotel. Storm duty they get double overtime so $100+ an hour and they do 16 hours straight with 8 for rest. My neighbor is in Maine right now and said he will probably take home 10k for the 5 days he is there.

Another issue is trees. The majority of trees that fall on wires are from private business and homes from neglected trees.

Yes it's expensive but other states have those same costs, and their distribution rates are a lot lower then ours.

[Speegleagle]

Originally Posted by mels

Wow, you have been very lucky! In the past 10 years as an Eversource customer, I can recall having four separate week-long stretches with zero power. That doesn’t count all of the little one-off outages over the years of a couple hours here and there. I just had one of those the other night. Early morning this past Saturday I lost power for 5 hours. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of theirs.

It has been so long since I used my generator , my friend keeps bugging me to run it a few hours. I guess I will when I put the snow blower away.

Like I said they came through here starting 8 years ago and massively trimmed the trees . All the high winds over had the past few weeks didn’t even create a flicker.

And you are right , it is lucky.

[NYCresident2014]

Originally Posted by East of the River

Yes it's expensive but other states have those same costs, and their distribution rates are a lot lower then ours.

That's always my response too. Whenever I say "power is too expensive" people respond with "well, it's expensive to maintain the equipment". Why, then, does the power cost half as much to deliver in Florida as it does in the Northeast? They have plenty of major storms that require serious maintenance and rebuilds, yet my parents pay an all-in electric rate of 11.5 cents (delivery + supply + admin costs) whereas I pay nearly 23 cents up here.

About the only good thing about the high power costs in the northeast is that it makes solar attractive since the payback is so short, but I'd rather just have lower power costs and not need solar. Rooftop solar is ridiculously wasteful in terms of installation costs per KW installed as compared to utility solar, so it's dumb that our area encourages wasteful spending as opposed to reasonable, efficient spending like utility-scale solar.

[davemess10]

Originally Posted by mels

Wow, you have been very lucky! In the past 10 years as an Eversource customer, I can recall having four separate week-long stretches with zero power. That doesn’t count all of the little one-off outages over the years of a couple hours here and there. I just had one of those the other night. Early morning this past Saturday I lost power for 5 hours. To put it mildly, I am not a fan of theirs.

Agreed. I've only live in CT for about 3 years and we've already experienced two week long power outages.
When a substantial portion of your state is out of power for multiple days (like happened last August) and then increase your prices, I don't see how you could argue Eversource is doing a great job.

[RoundTableKnight]

So no one's going to do anything about it right? We'll all just complain but still let them stick it to us?

[Cambium]

Never saw the comparison until now.. ouch.

Only six states had an average residential electricity price exceeding 20 cents/kWh. Connecticut one of them.

Geographically, prices were highest in the Northeast and the Pacific states of California, Alaska, and Hawaii

https://cleantechnica.com/2022/06/27...ost-us-states/

[ryanthegoldengod]

People should watch John Oliver's piece on energy companies. They build new infrastructure they don't actually need so they can get rate hikes approved to pay for said infrastructure.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by ryanthegoldengod

People should watch John Oliver's piece on energy companies. They build new infrastructure they don't actually need so they can get rate hikes approved to pay for said infrastructure.

think it's actually worse then that in CT. Here the do very little infrastructure and tag on fees. They even brag about it in their annual reports. In the Past eversource has mentioned in filings that CT has a favorable environment to recover costs with fees. The state wanted to cut their allowed profits by 90 basis points but eversource agreed to last years discounts for the tropical storm in 2020 instead of a cut in profits.

Last year I called eversource (for the third time) about removing a tree next to a power pole in my front yard. When I have called them in the past they have never talked to me just driven by and sent a letter saying they would review during the next cutting. Then the next cutting comes and nothing happens. This time I talked with the guy. He said yes the tree should come down (the trunk is a foot away from a pole with a transformer) but he says eversource won't OK it because it would be too expensive (even thou all their internal guidelines says it should go) They would need to shut down power and temporarily move lines to do it so they would rather risk it. I have since tried different ways to get them to do this (Local tree warden local state rep) but no luck.
I had a conversation with a guy a while back who worked for Asplundh the contractor that does most of the tree work for Eversource. He says the company is paid by the mile and as such tries to avoid anything they can't do in a couple hours. They bill Eversource and Eversource recovers the cost thru fees, even thou all they did was cut the easy branches.