Staff of the Department of Public Service also presented reports on electric reliability, gas safety and electric safety standards.

 

Excluding major storms, the electric system statewide interruption frequency in 2016 was 8 percent higher than the previous year. The frequency was also greater than the statewide five-year average. However, the statewide duration of these outages was 6.1 percent better than last year and 2.7 percent better than the statewide five-year average. Three major causes for interruptions, excluding storms, were contacts between trees and power lines followed by equipment failures and accidents. The complete report on electric reliability performance is available here.

 

The staff also reported that New York utilities were in compliance with electric safety standards. The Commission established these standards in 2005 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 electric safety standards include: (1) stray voltage testing of streetlights and electric facilities that are accessible to the public, using certified voltage detection devices; (2) inspection of utility electric facilities on a minimum of a five-year cycle; (3) recordkeeping, certification, quality assurance and reporting requirements; and, (4) adoption of the National Electric Safety Code as the minimum standard governing utility construction, maintenance, and operations.

 

Manual stray voltage testing was performed on approximately one million facilities across the State last year identifying 547 stray voltage conditions 60 percent of which were associated with streetlights.  Mobile testing which focuses on underground infrastructure was also performed in the New York City, Buffalo, and Rochester areas.  All utilities are in compliance with the inspection requirement with approximately 822,000 facilities visually inspected in 2016. The complete report on utility compliance with Electric Safety Standards is available here.

 

Department Staff also evaluated critical areas of gas safety, including damage prevention, emergency response times and leak management.  Over the past 14 years: local distribution companies have seen a nearly 71 percent improvement in total damage performance; the 30-minute emergency response time has improved from 76.8 percent to 82.8 percent; and the year-end backlog of potentially hazardous leaks has decreased 95 percent, from 1,154 to 58.

 

Over the past nine years, the total leak backlog (including minor leaks) has decreased 35.3 percent. As companies continue their outreach efforts, adopt better practices in responding to leak and odor calls, and work to replace aging leak prone infrastructure, staff expects further improvements will occur.  The complete report on gas safety performance is available here.

The Commission’s decision in this proceeding, may be obtained by going to the Commission Documents section of the Commission’s Web site at www.dps.ny.gov and entering the Case Numbers 17-G-0245, 17-E-0173, 17-E-0164, 17-M-0281 in the input box labeled "Search by Case 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. For more information, you may also visit your service provider’s website.