City, Consultant To Investigate Electric Co., Water Utilities Over Feb. Freeze Problems

The city, along with a consultanting company, will investigate what went wrong with El Paso Electric and El Paso Water Utilities during the winter storm in early February that left thousands of customers with no power and water.

The move has raised concerns of whether the findings can be objective because the utilities are paying for the study.

On Tuesday, the City Council gave the City’s Chief Engineer, Alan Shubert, approval to begin the process to work with a consultant to perform a technical study and assessment of the utilities’ performance during the winter freeze when temperatures dropped close to zero.

Between Feb. 2 and Feb. 7, rate-payers experienced massive service interruptions due to the severe weather. The loss of power and water service has prompted the city to evaluate the utilities’ systems during extreme weather conditions. El Paso Electric’s generators and much of their instrumentation froze and had to institute rolling blackouts to different areas of the city.

Shubert will oversee the study and will work with consultant company Black & Veatch to find the causes of service interruptions, how effectively the utilities communicated with each other, and what steps they can take to avoid service interruptions in another severe weather event.

The utilities will split the cost of the study — a move that concerned some city representatives. City Rep. Steve Ortega asked Shubert how reliable the results will be if the utilities are footing the bill for the assessment.

Shubert said that while the utilities will be providing information to the consulting company, they will not be directly involved with the company. Shubert said the two utilities will provide the money for the study to the city but it will be the city that will authorize the use of that money and write the check to the private company.

“We felt that it had to be a transparent process, the utilities have agreed to that. They’re going to pay for it, but they’re going to give the money to the city and the city’s going to authorize payment to the consultant as they finish the phases of their work,” said Shubert during an interview.

“The public can rest assured that we are going to be as unbiased as possible and just put the information out there, and be as transparent as possible so that Alan Shubert can do his job,” added Christina Montoya, spokeswoman and a Vice President at El Paso Water Utilities.

The Council approved the study in a 5 to 1 vote. Reps. Ortega, Carl Robinson, Emma Acosta, Ann Morgan Lilly, and Rachel Quintana voted yes. Rep. Beto O’Rourke voted against the study because he said six months, the estimated time of the study, is too long and the findings will be presented to a different city council. Reps. Eddie Holguin and Susie Byrd were not at Tuesday’s meeting.

El Paso Electric’s Richard Fleager said the company is willing to provide the information the city needs. “I mean we’re the only ones who really understand what took place from our operations, but clearly the study’s being done by the city of El Paso so from our standpoint, we’re really supporting the first phase of the study,” he said.

Initially, a group of engineering companies offered to study El Paso Water Utilities but they later withdrew their offer, as questions arose about how objective that study would be since some of those companies had done business with the Public Service Board which oversees the water utility.

Fleager said it was the Mayor who suggested the out of town company conduct the study and that they also include El Paso Electric in their assessment. “So he called us together and he felt that it was better if a large, independent firm actually did the work especially a company that didn’t design the faciliities locally.” Fleager said, referring to the mayor.

Related Links:Link:El Paso Electric: No Increase In Bills Expected From Feb. StormLink:City Debriefing Report On Utilities And Winter Storm 2011