NStar returns power to most customers and the Prudential tower

Boston.com ^ | 03/15/2012 | Brian MacQuarrie and Brian R. Ballou

[matt04]

Even as electricity flowed again Thursday to most power-starved pockets of the Back Bay, one of the city’s signature office towers remained dark for most of the day, and questions intensified about why NStar repeatedly changed its predictions for restoring power.

The utility at one point insisted that nearly all 21,000 business and residential customers who lost power after a billowing transformer fire Tuesday had been reconnected. The one exception — and it was a big one — was the sprawling Prudential Center, which remained closed for much of the day and, in the process, disrupted the lives of about 8,000 workers.

NStar chief executive Thomas May called the original outage, which upended Back Bay life for two days, the result of a catastrophic equipment failure that he does not expect to see again in his lifetime.

But state officials and Mayor Thomas M. Menino are demanding answers.

‘‘In the wake of the transformer fire and subsequent power outages in the Back Bay, I have instructed the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities to require NStar submit a full reporting of the incident,’’ said Richard K. Sullivan Jr., the state energy and environmental affairs secretary.

That report must include ‘‘damage assessment, restoration efforts, communication with customers, and a root cause analysis to ensure this type of event does not happen again,’’ Sullivan said.

...

Menino demanded that NSTAR reimburse restaurants for spoiled food, pay restaurant workers for lost wages, and cover overtime costs for police and other city employees. He urged the utility not to pass on the cost to customers by increasing electricity rates.

[matt04]

So a transformer at a sub station explodes, knocks out power for a large portion of Boston and NStar restores almost all customers in less than 48 hours using generators and running temporary cables to connect the part of the city on the failed substation to the working grid and Menino is not satisfied.

Why not demand NStar pay everybody for any lost money, from janitors, office workers, etc? Why only care about restaurants and their employees?

[AU72]

The parking meters in the Back Bay never went out being powered by solar and rechargeable batterys. And the meter maids never stop writing.

[GreyFriar]

Why are all those folks complaining? they should be rejoicing that they are no longer slaves to coal/oil/nuclear power plants and can now live off of the banks of Solyndra solar cells they surely purchased and installed on the roofs of their houses. Or from the power of the off shore windmills that the Kennedy family so vigorously promoted; or the windmill they buitl on their property. If nothing else, don’t they have their own bicyle powered generator so that they can pedal all the power they need?