Department of and Environmental ProtectionConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency Merger • 7/1/2011 –DPUC to DEEP (PURA) • 10/7/2011 – PURA Reorganization

Connecticut Department ofEnergy and Environmental Protection

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Connecticut Regulator Roundtable

October 11, 2012Karl Baker2012 Pipeline Safety SeminarMystic, CT

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental ProtectionConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Agency Merger

• 7/1/2011 – DPUC to DEEP (PURA)

• 10/7/2011 – PURA Reorganization– GPSU lost an engineer to DEEP Energy Group– Responsible for all engineering functions

• 6/1/2012 – New Supervisor for non‐GPSU engineering functions!


Personnel

• Program Manager – Karl Baker – 19 years• Engineer 3 – Bruce Benson – 14 years• Engineer 3 – Daniel Nivison – 13 years• Engineer 2 – Edward Fabrycki – 5 years• Engineer 1 – John DePaolo – 2 years• Damage Prevention Inspector – Joseph Gallo –11 years


Civil Penalties• Civil Penalties

– State law references 49 U.S.C. 60122– Automatic– $200,000/$2,000,000– Effective January 2012


One‐Call• Civil Penalties = $221,500 (assessed and collected)

• Damages per 1,000 locate requests (all utilities):– 2010 – 3.53– 2011 – 2.84

• Damages per 1,000 locate requests (gas utilities):– 2010 – 1.73– 2011 – 1.46


One‐Call• Heading to Legislature this winter

– Tweaking certain rules• Updating definitions• Updating for new technology• More flexibility

– Civil Penalties ‐ $40,000 to $200,000


Merger• Northeast Utilities merges with NSTAR

– Yankee Gas in CT– NSTAR Gas in MA– Merger savings through “best practices” (never the least cost)

– Order in Final Decision• All changes to O&M, Construction standards, etc., must be run through GPSU 10 days prior to implementation


Code of Conduct (adopted 2011)• Regulations of Connecticut State Agencies• Sec. 16‐47a‐2. General standards of conduct

– (a) Required Conduct.• (2) A gas company shall refuse goods or services provided by an affiliate, including a centralized service company (shared services), or other provider if the gas company determines that such goods or services are inferior, overpriced or would be detrimental to its ability to operate and maintain a safe gas system…


Storm Dockets• Fall out from Tropical Storm and Snow Storm

– Emergency Plans must cover outages of 10%, 30%, 50% and 70%

– Performance standards for storm restoration• Civil penalties for not meeting standards


Propane• Continuing to locate new jurisdictional propane systems and their operators

• DIMP audits for all known propane operators in 2013!


Incidents

NONE!


New Haven – 3/2/2012


New Haven – 3/3/2012


New Haven


Enforcement• What is the proper level of enforcement?

– Post San Bruno– NTSB– PHMSA– NAPSR– PURA– GPSU


Enforcement• You have rules to follow – you must follow them– Your employees must do the job right the first time

– You have inspectors to help ensure this– You have managers and supervisors that need to ensure this

• We should NEVER be finding problems!


Enforcement• Increased third party damage inspections

– Result = PURA displeased with what we are seeing

– Further Result = CIVIL PENALTIES!• $50,000 for inadequate mark outs• $25,000 for inadequate leak response• $30,000 for inadequate mark outs (Docket pending)


Enforcement• PURA enforcement process has been expedited

• Old way– Inspection performed– Problem identified– Lengthy process to determine what to do– Attempted settlement– Usually 1 to 2 years start to finish

• New way– Inspection performed– Problem identified and enforcement decision made (next day)– Direct letter civil penalty decision (can be done within hours if necessary, within 2‐3 weeks of inspection normally)

Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

Questions?

Karl BakerPublic Utilities Supervisor of Technical [email protected]‐827‐2661

Documents

Department of and Environmental ProtectionConnecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Agency Merger • 7/1/2011 –DPUC to DEEP (PURA) • 10/7/2011 – PURA Reorganization