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For Immediate Release: 06/20/2024 Rory M. Christian, Chair and Chief Executive Officer Contact:
James Denn | James.Denn@dps.ny.gov | (518) 474-7080 24052/24-E-0238; 24-G-0145; 24-E-0140 June 20, 2024
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PSC Receives Update on Utility Electric Reliability and Gas Safety Standards |
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NYSEG Cited $3.5 Million for Failing to Meet Reliability Standards ALBANY — The New York State Public Service Commission (Commission) today reviewed the State’s major utilities in terms of their performance in several key areas for 2023, including electric reliability service, electric safety, and gas safety.“The Commission’s rate design provides carrots and sticks based on utility performance,” said Commission Chair Rory M. Christian. “The Commission continues to aggressively work with utilities to improve their performance. Maintaining reliability and safety is a requirement for utilities, and the Commission holds them accountable when they fail to meet our standards.”
Electric Reliability: Department of Public Service staff completed its annual review of the electric service reliability performance of the New York State electric utilities and presented its report for 2023 to the Commission. The Commission relies on two primary metrics to measure performance: the System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI or frequency) and the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index (CAIDI or duration). Excluding major storms, the statewide interruption frequency for 2023 was 0.58. This is 9 percent better than last year and 9 percent better than the statewide five-year average. The statewide interruption duration for 2023, excluding major storms, was 1.92 hours. This is 1.2 minutes longer than last year but 3 minutes shorter than the five-year average. The State experienced 27 separate storm events that qualified as major storms in 2023. Customers affected by major storms decreased by 34 percent compared to 2022, and customer hours of interruption from major storms decreased by 56 percent compared to 2022. Reliability Performance Mechanisms (RPMs) are company-wide performance targets established by the Commission in rate orders; companies are subjected to negative revenue adjustments for failing to meet their reliability targets. New York State Electric & Gas Corporation (NYSEG) exceeded its RPM target for frequency. As a result, NYSEG incurred a negative revenue adjustment, or penalty, of $3.5 million. All other electric utilities met their RPM targets in 2023.
Electric Safety: The Commission established electric safety standards to safeguard the public from exposure to stray voltage and to identify and eliminate potentially harmful conditions before serious safety hazards and/or reliability deficiencies develop. The standards include, among other requirements, stray voltage testing of streetlights and electric facilities that are accessible to the public. In 2023, manual stray voltage testing was performed on approximately one million utility facilities statewide, resulting in the identification of 178 stray voltage conditions; of which 117 (66 percent) were at potentially dangerous voltage levels of 4.5V or higher. The overall total of stray voltage findings increased 34 percent from the 2022 level with the total number of findings above 4.5V increasing by 15 percent, and the number of all stray voltage findings amounting to 0.015 percent of all facilities tested. All utilities were in full compliance with all testing and inspection requirements in 2023.
Gas Safety: Department staff evaluated critical areas of gas safety, including damage prevention, emergency response, leak management, and compliance with the minimum gas safety regulations identified through staff’s audit process. Overall, the data indicates that performance has substantially improved for the utilities across the State over the 21-year period staff has been reporting performance. The utilities have maintained focus on these performance measures which ensured the same, if not a greater level of public safety. The first measure, damage prevention, gauges the utilities’ achievement in minimizing damages to buried gas facilities caused by excavation or demolition activities. In 2023, the data shows a decrease in the number of one-call tickets and in the number of total damages. The second measure, emergency response, reflects the utilities’ ability to respond promptly to reports of leak, odor, and emergency notifications by examining the percentage of reports that were responded to within three response time intervals. In 2023, the utilities’ performance for each interval improved slightly and each interval far exceeded the established minimum percentages. The third measure, leak management, examined the utilities’ performance related to their leak inventories, in addition to evaluation of leaks discovered and leaks repaired. In general, all utilities have demonstrated improvement in this measure over the past several years. The fourth measure, compliance with the minimum gas safety regulations, identifies violations through staff’s audits and investigations of the utilities. In summary, as utilities continue their outreach and education efforts to excavator communities as well as the public, adopt better practices in responding to leak, odor, and emergency reports, work to remove leak-prone infrastructure, and as quality assurance and quality control programs continue to mature, staff expects further performance improvements will occur.
Today’s reports may be obtained by going to the Commission Documents section of the Commission’s Web site at www.dps.ny.gov and entering Case Numbers 24-E-0140 [Electric Reliability]; 24-E-0238 [Electric Safety]; and 24-G-0145 [Gas Safety] in the input box labeled "Search for Case/Matter Number". Many libraries offer free Internet access. Commission documents may also be obtained from the Commission’s Files Office, 14th floor, Three Empire State Plaza, Albany, NY 12223 (518-474-2500). If you have difficulty understanding English, please call us at 1-800-342-3377 for free language assistance services regarding this press release.
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