A message from Avangrid Networks CEO Tony Marone
ORANGE, Conn. — April 6, 2020
During this time of crisis and uncertainty, I wanted to take a moment to share with you how United Illuminating is taking action to assist and protect you while we continue our important work.
The electricity we provide is critical to every aspect of modern living. It provides comfort for those remaining at home and helps keep them connected with family and friends. It is critical to the economy, as well as the hospitals and first responders that are at the front lines in this battle against coronavirus.
UI has an enormous responsibility in the days ahead: to maintain safe and reliable service, to restore customers quickly if power is interrupted, and to continue our essential operations through the end of the crisis. We have made this our mission and our passion.
We do not take this responsibility lightly.
You will continue to see our trucks in the field and our crews at work. We prepare for a wide variety of emergency scenarios on an ongoing basis, and are taking extraordinary measures to protect our employees and our communities as this pandemic unfolds.
In early February, we began educating employees about the potential threat from the coronavirus, and provided them with training to help prevent its spread. Employees who can work from home are now doing so. The front-line personnel who cannot are working under protocols designed to separate and protect them. We've also taken steps to protect the health of our employees and customers by suspending all non-emergency indoor work.
As the first cases of coronavirus began to emerge in our state, we conducted inspections and performed maintenance to protect electrical circuits that serve hospitals and other critical facilities in our territory. If there is a storm, even amidst a pandemic, we can call in support from our sister companies in New York and Maine, and request reinforcements from other utilities through regional and national mutual assistance organizations.
We are committed to helping you manage your account.
We recognize the impact this event is having on the economy and our customers. Early on, UI suspended shut-offs for nonpayment, as well as late-payment fees and security deposits. If you find yourself suffering a hardship, I encourage you to contact our Customer Care team to make arrangements and identify resources that may assist you.
We are your friends and neighbors at UI.
Our parent company, AVANGRID, and the Avangrid Foundation, have committed $2 million to coronavirus response and recovery efforts at the national, state and local level. Our companies also donated 31,000 protective masks to hospitals in the areas where they operate. We continue to work with our regulators and community partners to find ways to ease the impact of this event, particularly for our most vulnerable customers.
I encourage customers who can afford to do so to add $1 to their monthly payment to support Operation Fuel , or visit operationfuel.org to donate another amount to provide energy assistance for Connecticut families.
Although these are uncertain times, I am inspired by the way our communities are coming together. We will do our part to honor our responsibility to you, our customers.