Raimondo calls for legislative power to fine National Grid

GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO called on the R.I. General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow the DPUC to fine National Grid in situations such as the Aquidneck Island gas outage of 2018, following a report released by DPUC finding the company partially at fault for the outage. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN
GOV. GINA M. RAIMONDO called on the R.I. General Assembly to pass a bill that would allow the DPUC to fine National Grid in situations such as the Aquidneck Island gas outage of 2018, following a report released by DPUC finding the company partially at fault for the outage. / PBN FILE PHOTO/ELI SHERMAN

PROVIDENCE – Gov. Gina M. Raimondo took National Grid Rhode Island to task over its role in the Aquidneck Island gas outage of 2018, calling for the R.I. General Assembly to give the R.I. Department of Public Utilities and Carriers tools to fine the company for system failures.

Raimondo was responding a report released by the DPUC that showed the outage was caused by extenuating circumstances, as well as failures by both National Grid and Enbridge, which operates the Algonquin national gas pipeline.

“My frustration and disappointment with National Grid is directed at their management team, not workers on the ground,” said Raimondo. “It is not directed at them. They are the ones in harm’s way.”

Raimondo instead cited a lack of willingness to make the necessary investments to address ageing infrastructure. She said states such as Massachusetts and New York have systems set up to fine companies for situations such as the outage.

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Raimondo said her proposed legislation would require National Grid to give a preparedness plan to the state, and would grant the authority to the state to fine the company for not meeting standards.

She noted Rhode Island’s DPUC currently lacks that authority. Raimondo said such a disparity between states incentivizes the company to send workers to Massachusetts before Rhode Island.

“What I know to be true and what I feel firmly about, is that the rate payers in the state of Rhode Island will not and should not bear the cost for their mistakes,” she said.

Raimondo said she has ordered DPUC to work with National Grid to create a plan to ensure such a situation will never happen again.

The DPUC report found that the outage in Aquidneck Island was caused by three major factors, a high demand for natural gas, a power system failure at National Grid’s liquid natural gas and a malfunctioning gas valve on the Algonquin pipeline maintained by Enbridge.

The governor said the legislative power would allow the state to push companies to maintain aging infrastructure.

When asked, the governor said she was concerned this would happen again, saying such a concern was why she was in Newport meeting with local officials on the matter.

At the time of the release of DPUC’s report on the gas outage, National Grid said it disagreed with some of the conclusions of the report and emphasized blame on Enbridge for the incident. The company also said it has already worked to remedy some of the problems identified in the report.

Enbridge responded to the report by highlighting the culpability of National Grid.

National Grid declined to comment on the governor’s press conference Tuesday.

Chris Bergenheim is the PBN web editor. You may reach him at Bergenheim@PBN.com.

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