White Plains, NY — Westchester County Legislators Mike Kaplowitz (D - New Castle, Somers, Yorktown) and Kitley Covill (D- Bedford, Lewisboro, Mount Kisco, North Salem, Pound Ridge, Somers) are calling for an independent assessment of the electric delivery operations of New York State Electric and Gas.

The call comes after a storm on Tuesday left thousands of NYSEG customers in Northern Westchester without power, many for days, with some still waiting for service to be restored as of Friday afternoon.  

The extended power outages are just the latest in a series of such outages, including extended outages following Nor’easters in March.

“The lack of reliability, urgency and restoration on the part of NYSEG has now simply become untenable,” the legislators wrote in a letter sent to Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday.

The pair criticized the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates the utility, for not ordering that NYSEG fully incorporate the findings of a 2013 Moreland Commission report, and for failing to mandate improvements in NYSEG’s storm response and preparation.  As a result, the legislators said, the time has come for a third party to examine NYSEG.

Kaplowitz and Covill are calling for an independent assessment of NYSEG’s entire electricity delivery operation, to be conducted by a consultant hired by Westchester County but paid for by NYSEG.

“In short,” the legislators write, “a ‘bottom-up’ evaluation of NYSEG itself is absolutely needed at this time.”