LIPA's dismal customer rating after Irene
A Long Island Power Authority lineman works to reattach a transmission line after Tropical Storm Irene knocked out electric power to customers in Stony Brook (Aug. 30, 2011) Credit: Newsday/John Paraskevas
The only electric utility in the East to rank worse than the Long Island Power Authority in a customer satisfaction survey was one in the Appalachian Mountains serving parts of Virginia and Tennessee.
Devastating tornadoes in that region beat LIPA's own 2011 weather demon, Tropical Storm Irene, in the race to the bottom.
J.D. Power and Associates, which did an online survey of businesses, said a key factor in rating performance was how well LIPA communicated information about when power would return.
While the lights can never come on fast enough, people do understand that a major storm will be disruptive. What Long Islanders couldn't excuse, then and in this survey, was how Irene rendered LIPA speechless. For days, customers were left in the dark about repair crews and estimates about restoration.
LIPA has acknowledged it did a lousy job of communicating reliable information about the pre-Labor Day storm and says improvements have been put in place. These include hiring more managers to work with local officials, and implementing text-message alerts and an automated damage assessment system.
What LIPA is really counting on, however, is improved customer service from its new system manager, Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. of New Jersey. And unlike its current contract with National Grid, when PSEG takes over in 2014, LIPA will have more control over the response to an emergency.
Two summers and one winter will go by before then. LIPA has to do better a lot sooner than that.
