Nstar

The utility NStar defended its performance in the face of sharp questioning from Boston councilors Friday, rejecting calls for stricter oversight spurred by a massive power outage in March. Councilors voiced frustration with NStar over the Back Bay outage on March 13, which left thousands without power for two days and cost businesses millions of dollars, and raised doubts about the system's reliability following another outage this month. Stephen Murphy, the City Council president, pointing out that the utility has a monopoly in Boston, called for...

A smoky, two-alarm transformer fire in the basement forced the evacuation of the federal courthouse on the waterfront this afternoon. No one was injured, but the court was expected to remain closed on Friday, as a result, authorities said. Firefighters responded to the Moakley Courthouse on Northern Avenue at 4:12 p.m., a fire department spokesman said in a statement. Firefighters waited for NStar to turn off the power to the area, the spokesman said. NStar workers arrived shortly after 5 p.m. The lights in the building flickered and then went off as emergency alarms...

The merger finalized Tuesday between Boston's NStar and Connecticut's Northeast Utilities has created one of the nation's largest energy delivery companies, with more money to invest in system improvements, more crews to fix power outages, and better bargaining power to negotiate lower rates for customers, chief executive Thomas J. May said. NStar is now a subsidiary of the combined utility, which will be the region's largest, serving nearly 3.5 million electric and gas customers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

The utility NStar defended its performance in the face of sharp questioning from Boston councilors Friday, rejecting calls for stricter oversight spurred by a massive power outage in March. Councilors voiced frustration with NStar over the Back Bay outage on March 13, which left thousands without power for two days and cost businesses millions of dollars, and raised doubts about the system's reliability following another outage this month. Stephen Murphy, the City Council president, pointing out that the utility has a monopoly in Boston, called for...

Some customers remain without power two days after smoky electrical transformer fire in Boston's Back Bay knocked out electricity to about 21,000. Electric utility NStar said Thursday evening crews were working to restore the Prudential Center building and about 1,500 customers where a temporary cable overloaded. Some residents reported other scattered outages. NStar chief executive Tom May said at a news conference the fire was caused by an unusual "catastrophic" connector failure between a substation housing the transformer and the transmission system.

NStar officials said they still don't know how a fire in a Back Bay substation started Tuesday evening, but the blaze set off a chain of events that resulted in the shutdown of two substations and the loss of power to more than 20,000 customers. The failure also shows how downtown Boston is dependent on six power substations for electricity, and the thin margin of error in the system when one fails. The problem began when a power line to a transformer at the Scotia Street substation failed; 15 minutes later NStar received a second alert that the transformer had...

Massachusetts ratepayers could soon see their electricity bills shrink as the lowest natural gas prices in a decade make it cheaper to produce power. Nearly 60 percent of the state's electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants, and utilities - which have been paying less to buy that power - are passing the savings on to consumers. NStar, now a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities of Boston and Hartford, asked state regulators on Monday to approve a nearly 16 percent cut in power rates for its 1.1 million electricity customers.

At some point in the future, maybe 50 years from now, maybe a century, historians will look back at this era as the time when America basically lost its collective mind. The latest example is Ted Kelly, the recently retired chief executive officer of Boston's Liberty Mutual insurance company. Ask any official or business person across the state, and they'll sing Kelly's praises: good guy, insanely smart, devoted to the common cause, all of that manifest in the fact that Liberty Mutual grew at breakneck speed under his leadership and gave millions of dollars away.

Connecticut regulators will review a proposed merger between Boston-based NStar and Hartford-based Northeast Utilities, which could jeopardize the utilities' plan. The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority reversed course in part because of concerns that Bay State officials could impose conditions on the deal that would affect Connecticut residents, including buying power from the Cape Wind.

Of all the critical questions swirling in the public square this week - do we really have to live with Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren for the next five months, would it have been better if JPMorgan Chase just played blackjack with the $2 billion it lost - there is one issue that trumps all others. Who lies about a degree from Stonehill? The answer, of course, is Scott Thompson, the freshly ousted chief executive of the struggling Internet giant Yahoo. Stonehill, for those new to the area, is the quaint Catholic college in sleepy Easton, Mass.

Of all the critical questions swirling in the public square this week - do we really have to live with Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren for the next five months, would it have been better if JPMorgan Chase just played blackjack with the $2 billion it lost - there is one issue that trumps all others. Who lies about a degree from Stonehill? The answer, of course, is Scott Thompson, the freshly ousted chief executive of the struggling Internet giant Yahoo. Stonehill, for those new to the area, is the quaint Catholic college in sleepy Easton, Mass.

State regulators called this week's power outage in the Back Bay unacceptable and demanded Friday that electric company NStar provide a full account of what is being done to prevent repeat blackouts. The regulators, from the Department of Public Utilities, told NStar officials they must maintain the "highest standards" as they repair an electrical substation that caught fire in March, cutting power for two days to a broad swath of the city. NStar officials assured department officials that the cause of this week's outage, which affected about 12,500 customers and lasted...

By Patrick D. Rosso, Town Correspondent Eighty-three Nstar customers on Upton Street will be temporarily without power Saturday. From 1:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. May 12 residents from 9 Upton St. through 39 Upton St. will experience an outage due to work Nstar will be performing on an underground "switch". According to a spokesperson for Nstar, to replace the equipment the system must be temporarily shut down and letters have been distributed to notify residents. For questions or more information, contact Nstar by phone at 1-800-592-2000.

The utility company NStar determined that Tuesday's outage in the Back Bay was caused when a power supply failed during ongoing repairs to an electrical substation that caught fire in March. The faulty power supply caused a protective system at the facility to activate, shutting down a transformer and a 115,000-volt line, the power company said Wednesday. About 12,500 customers lost power for less than an hour, a frustrating reminder of the lengthy blackout in March, which was triggered by a transformer fire.

A power outage Tuesday - triggered by a problem at the same substation that caught fire in March, plunging the heart of the city into darkness - had thousands of residents and business owners in the Back Bay, South End, and Fenway scratching their heads in disbelief. While the latest blackout lasted under an hour, the brevity did little to appease those who suffered through the March madness and left many wondering why NStar's problems recurred. "I'm sure there was a thought in everyone's mind that it's happening again," said Pamela Ackers, a Back Bay resident who was...

Massachusetts ratepayers could soon see their electricity bills shrink as the lowest natural gas prices in a decade make it cheaper to produce power. Nearly 60 percent of the state's electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants, and utilities - which have been paying less to buy that power - are passing the savings on to consumers. NStar, now a subsidiary of Northeast Utilities of Boston and Hartford, asked state regulators on Monday to approve a nearly 16 percent cut in power rates for its 1.1 million electricity customers.

Connecticut regulators yesterday finalized their decision to scrutinize a proposed merger between Boston's NStar and the Hartford-based Northeast Utilities, meaning the companies now need approval in both Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority said in a statement that it is "legally obliged" to review the $17.5 billion deal to ensure that the combined utility would be able to provide "safe, adequate, reliable and reasonably priced services for Connecticut customers.

Attorney General Martha Coakley is calling on state utility regulators to impose a five-year rate freeze, or to credit electricity and natural gas customers with more than $300 million in expected savings, as a condition of approving the proposed merger of Boston's NStar and Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities. In a filing with the state Department of Public Utilities yesterday, Coakley said she would support the merger if these and other conditions are met. In a separate filing, state energy officials said approval of the merger should also hinge on the company signing a...

By Deirdre Fernandes, Globe Staff Newton officials are hopeful that Brown Middle School will be ready for students on Monday when they return from April vacation after the building's electrical system was damaged earlier this week. The damage was caused on Wednesday while NStar crews were working on a transformer near the school, said Newton Mayor Setti Warren. There was a small fire, but it was isolated, Warren said. The more extensive damage was to the school's electric wiring.