(Bloomberg) -- With at least 72,500 homes and businesses still without electricity six days after Tropical Storm Isaias swept through the Northeast, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned that utilities aren't “too big to fail.”
Consolidated Edison Inc. and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. “are doing the worst in terms of recovery,” Cuomo said in a statement Thursday. “Your franchise can be revoked. I am not bluffing.” He's already launched an investigation of utility efforts to restore power, as did Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.
Hundreds of additional utility workers brought in over the weekend weren't enough to restore power to everyone in New York, Connecticut and New Jersey after Isaias battered the region last Tuesday. Most of the outages are on Long Island, in the Hudson Valley and in western Connecticut, according to utility websites.
Cuomo, a Democrat, has a history of sparring with utilities. Last year, he threatened to kick National Grid Plc out of the state if it didn't figure out how to address natural gas shortages after regulators blocked a pipeline expansion. In the end, National Grid blinked and agreed to pay $36 million in penalties and on energy efficiency measures and clean-energy projects. He's also suggested that the government take over ConEd, after a series of power failures in 2019.
ConEd, which had 26,000 outages in New York Monday morning, had more than 3,800 workers removing trees and downed wires and repairing equipment destroyed in the storm. The company said it remains on target to meet its goal of restoring service to the vast majority of customers by tonight.
PSEG Long Island expected most customers to be back up Monday, according to a statement. Eversource, which serves Connecticut, said at least 99% of its customers will be restored by late Tuesday.
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