“We are at the very beginning. We want to see if municipal control is even possible,’’ said Norwell Town Administrator James Boudreau.
“We want a faster response. This was a tropical storm. What if it was a category 2 hurricane? What if it was the winter?’’ he said, noting the efficient restoration of power in towns with electric utilities under municipal control, such as Hingham, Hull, and Braintree.
Last week, Bridgewater Town Manager Troy Clarkson expressed similar interest in exploring the issue. A parallel movement is afoot in Easton.
“We’re actively collecting information. If we could get to a point where National Grid fixes the issues, then there is no need for municipal control, but we aren’t there,’’ said Easton Town Administrator David Colton.
Over the past few weeks, an array of community officials, legislators, and residents from the area have begun pushing for movement on Beacon Hill, said state Representative Jay Kaufman, a Lexington Democrat responsible for repeatedly filing what is now called bill H869, or the “muni-choice bill.’’ It would grant cities and towns the option, under state authority, to form a municipal utility by making it possible for them to acquire electric wires and other assets at a fair price from the current investor-owned utilities.
The passage of such a bill would mark the first step in the multilayered efforts necessary to extract a town from its established reliance on private electric utilities. Change would first require legislative action; then economic and engineering feasibility studies; the accumulation of necessary infrastructure, such as electric wires and poles; securing long-term power supplies; as well as operating and improving the system.
National Grid offers a different opinion. Communities are “best served by a company with established practices, resources, and programs that can serve them in an evolving, challenging energy environment,’’ said Deborah Drew, a spokeswoman for the utility.
Irene was a storm of unprecedented magnitude, said Drew, affecting the utility’s infrastructure. Nearly 430,000 of the utility’s customers lost power the night of the storm and two-thirds of these had it restored within two days, she noted.
