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An Open Letter To Our Customers
We at The United Illuminating Company fully recognize the hardships our
customers have endured because of Hurricane Irene, one of the most
destructive storms to hit our region in recent memory. At its peak, the
storm caused more than 158,000 power outages and severely impacted
electric service in every one of the 17 communities we serve.
As of the end of today, we will have successfully restored power to virtually
all of our customers.
Regardless of the cause, being without electricity for more than a short
time stretches one’s patience. We fully understand the critical nature of
the service we provide. That is why we conducted extensive planning prior
to the arrival of Irene. Our employees have been working tirelessly during
the power restoration process. These hard‐working employees also are
your neighbors. After long work shifts, many of them, too, returned to
darkened homes. Rest assured the hardships were shared and deeply
understood.
We wish to extend our thanks to our customers for your understanding,
patience and support during this difficult restoration process; and to our
employees for your dedication and commitment.
We utilized every resource at our disposal to meet the unprecedented
challenges resulting from a storm of this magnitude. We expanded our
crew base from 100 to 325 by calling in available utility crews from many
different states including Florida, the Carolinas, Wisconsin, Missouri,
Indiana, and New Hampshire. Our administrative and support staffs, as well
as those from our affiliated UIL companies, worked around the clock to
support our objective.
We worked closely with federal, state and municipal officials to coordinate
storm recovery efforts and communicate our progress. Sometimes our
effort may have slowed due to the magnitude of destruction and the debris
that needed to be cleared, but we pressed forward with a single goal in
mind……restoration of every single United Illuminating customer.
In every case, we proceeded as quickly as the situation allowed, always
mindful of your safety and that of our employees. Communications are a
difficult challenge in an event such as this and we are committed to
improve in the future.
We set daily restoration objectives and were able to achieve them. We
were actually able to complete restoration ahead of timetables projected
by The Department of Energy (DOE) for a storm the size of Irene.
We are extremely proud of our performance, one that measures up to or
exceeds what experience across the nation would show. We are also proud
of all of the UIL employees and thank them for their diligence along with
the support of their families. To our customers, thank you again for your
patience and understanding.
Please know we will continue to work on your behalf to deliver safe,
reliable electric power to all the communities we serve.
Jim Torgerson
Chief Executive Officer
The United Illuminating Company
Tony Vallillo
President and Chief Operating Officer
The United Illuminating Company