The debate on Connecticut’s flawed deregualted electricty market wavers between forces that want to reregulate and forces that want to fix the parts of the deregualted market that aren’t working. The Courant reports on State Senator John Fonfara’s position:

State Sen. John Fonfara would seem to be in an enviable position. In 1998, he was one of a handful of legislators who opposed deregulating the state’s electricity generation market.

Almost a decade later, many legislators, including leaders in the House and Senate, view the decision as a mistake. Electricity rates have gone up drastically, and the public is upset.

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The Hartford Courant reports on the increasing failures of underground transformers and powerlines around the state. Last summer Stamford suffered outages attributed to failing transformers. More recently an electric worker was killed in Waterbury performing routine maitenance work. From The Courant:

The state’s two largest electricity providers, Connecticut Light & Power Co. and United Illuminating, both have multimillion-dollar projects under way to replace and upgrade equipment above and below ground.

Officials from both companies said Thursday that demand for more electricity is driving the projects, although aging equipment is also a concern.

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Although failing to meet with a quorum, the Finance and Claims Committee indicated that the BOE request for an 8.3% budget increase was not going to fly. According to a Norwalk Advocate article, Common Council member Doug Hempstead led the discussion in the direction of cutting the BOE request “They’re asking for too much,” he said. From the Norwalk Adovcate:

The three committee members at the meeting expressed support for increasing the amount for the Department of Public Works next year to address storm drainage problems that cause flooding in numerous parts of Norwalk.

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