When Will Portland Maine Have Power Again
Central Maine Power Co. said it's "embarrassing" that its website again failed to provide timely, accurate information in the wake of a powerful storm, with the problems customers faced following Thursday's nor'easter reminiscent of what they experienced later a wind and rainstorm two years agone.
At the acme, about 200,000 customers in the state were out of ability Thursday – more than than 175,000 in CMP'south service area in fundamental and southern Maine and well-nigh 38,000 in northern Maine who get their electricity from Emera Maine.
As the outages cascaded Thursday forenoon, customers reported having trouble accessing the CMP website to cheque on the status of outages or to report that they had lost power. For some customers, CMP said it would take decades for the power to exist restored, with an estimate of Jan. 1, 2068.
A screen shot of CMP's outage listing for Pownal on Thursday, indicating the estimated time to restore service.
CMP spokeswoman Catharine Hartnett said that an IT program that the company was running Thursday forenoon "inadvertently acquired a field not to behave correctly," generating the false 2068 restoration fourth dimension. She said heavy use of the site also caused some of the problems.
The visitor took the site down briefly late Thursday morning, she said, to make it more stable. When access to the site was restored, it reported that CMP was "assessing" restoration times, and Hartnett said that will remain the example until the utility is certain that it can provide an authentic estimate of when power volition be back on.
"It'due south embarrassing," Hartnett admitted but said it is the first fourth dimension the site has had bug since an intense wind and rainstorm in Oct 2017. In the wake of that storm, the Maine Public Utilities Commission constitute that CMP and Emera Maine handled the storm "reasonably," although it ordered both utilities to provide better information to customers in the wake of widespread outages.
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In a follow-up written report to regulators, CMP told the commission that information technology had either taken or would be taking steps to heighten its power to track outages. For instance, some equipment designed to monitor the electric arrangement failed in a power outage, and then CMP upgraded the system to make the equipment ready to be powered past generators and equipped with batteries with longer run times. Those changes were expected to assistance the utility provide better estimates of when power volition be restored, the company said.
The utilities also improved communications with emergency management directors and stepped up training for managers on dealing with widespread outages.
Hartnett said she was focused on communications virtually the storm and recovery Th and couldn't comment on how the company had been following the plan laid out to regulators.
CONFUSED COMMUNICATIONS
Customers said they encountered frustrating delays in reporting outages and getting information on repairs Thursday morning.
Jessica Blanchette of Saco said she called CMP to study the outage when she lost ability around 5 a.m. and got a recording saying agents weren't available to accept her call.
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After she fired upwardly her generator, Blanchette said, she tried to report the problem online, but got an error message.
Blanchette said she finally continued online to report the power failure and institute out that her neighbors had beat her to it. Her power was restored before long before apex, she said.
CMP sent out a tweet acknowledging the problems on its website and so another that read, "Hello, take you since been able to written report this?"
It wasn't clear who the company was attempting to contact, so one follower replied, "Are you talking to me?" and another asked, "Are you lot asking about the overcharge from two years dorsum? Yeah, I did report that."
We're enlightened that our website inaccurately reflects power restoration times in the year of 2068, and nosotros are deeply sorry for whatsoever inconvenience this has caused. Our team of Information technology experts in Augusta has identified the crusade and is working to resolve the issue every bit quickly equally possible. pic.twitter.com/53iVRPdEBk
— Fundamental Maine Power (@cmpco) October 17, 2019
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Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, a frequent CMP critic, mocked the visitor's spider web problems in a annotation that contained the hashtags "#oops #greatsystem #guesswhospayingforit #yesyou #plus13percentinterest #pluscorporatetaxes."
"We may have the most and longest outages in the land and among the highest delivery rates, but your power volition probable be restored in just over 48 years," said Drupe, referencing the erroneous 2068 restoration window. Drupe wants the land to explore converting CMP to a consumer-owned utility.
This isn't the first time that CMP has had issues with its website. During the storm two years ago, the company directed customers to the site for updates on outages and estimated restoration times, but much of the information was wrong. The visitor said it would fix the problems.
That was the get-go of a long menstruum of problems for the utility, which launched a new software billing system the same time the 2022 storm struck. A three-month period following the launch showed 97,000 customers were getting bills 50 pct college than the same menstruation a year before, prompting thousands of complaints to regulators.
Two ensuing audits showed CMP's problems were not acquired by the billing software, or the activation of a new digital metering arrangement. Merely a recent finding past the Public Advocate'southward office challenges those audits, saying bug with the billing and metering systems continue to produce inaccurate bills.
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A carve up investigation by the Press Herald showed the company had mismanaged the rollout of its billing software, failed to deliver acceptable customer service and misled the public.
The matter is before the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
In a Twitter bulletin, CMP said it is "working diligently" to fix technical issues on its website. The visitor too urged people to stay away from downed lines and report outages to 800-696-thou.
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Source: https://www.pressherald.com/2019/10/17/customers-run-into-problems-accessing-cmp-website-during-storm/
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