On Wednesday the Public Utilities Commission issued what’s called a clarification of position – which was basically a statement to publicly tell BEL that there’s nothing stopping the company from proceeding with new line installations and temporary connections. But nothing’s happened. BEL is still telling customers that it is not doing new service installations or temporary connections. BEL’s Corporate Communications Manager told us that the company would have a response on Thursday, and then that was pushed back to today – and now we’re told that the position will be declared “sometime early next week.”
So is the PUC powerless? Well, as the regulator, it can still issue an order but that’s a whole new process that would have to be initiated. But something has to be done to thaw relations – because the freeze on new installations has put the construction industry on pause, and September’s here – which means that very many temporary connections will be requested.
