Led by UI’s Key Account Management and Electric Operations teams, Storm Meetings provide municipal leaders with resources needed to restore customers quickly during storm-related outages, reinforcing UI’s commitment to safety and reliability 

 

ORANGE, Conn. — March 26, 2025 — United Illuminating (UI), a subsidiary of Avangrid, announced today they have kicked off their annual Storm Meetings with municipal leaders in all 17 towns and cities the company serves. Led by UI’s Key Account Management team, which liaises with municipalities for all their customer service needs, Storm Meetings provide an opportunity for UI to present on its restoration priorities, processes, and procedures during storm events, and for municipal leaders to engage in dialogue and Q&A with UI related to power restoration during and after a storm event of any size.  

 

“Everyone at UI is wholly focused on providing safe and reliable electric service, and during storms, that means restoring any customers experiencing an outage as quickly and safely as possible,” said Frank Reynolds, President & CEO of UI. “Our partnerships with the leaders in the towns and cities we serve are essential to these restoration efforts, as we rely on their on-the-ground intel and feedback to make areas safe, deenergize and clear downed wires, and prioritize outages in areas impacting the greatest number of customers. We are proud of our long history of maintaining great relationships with our municipal officials, and we look forward to continuing to serve them and their constituents with best-in-class service in the months ahead.” 

 

From the UI team, Storm Meetings are typically attended by Electric Operations, Vegetation Management, and Emergency Operations, while the municipal leaders in attendance often include the Mayor/First Selectman, Emergency Operations Director, Chief of Fire, Chief of Police, and the Director of Public Works, among others. During these meetings, which are scheduled each year with UI’s 17 municipalities from roughly March until May to precede the summer storm season, representatives from UI first detail event level classifications, which describe how the number of outages sets an expectation for the length of time it will take to restore all customers, followed by restoration priorities, which establish that during a storm event, UI prioritizes road clearing and deenergizing downed lines over restoring businesses and residences. UI also reminds municipal officials to review their “top 10 municipal priorities,” in which the municipality chooses locations for UI to treat as Priority 1 for restoration during an outage, which often includes hospitals, nursing home facilities, and other locations in which an outage has significant community impact. 

 

UI describes in Storm Meetings how its first priority is its “make safe functions,” in which blocked roads are cleared of any downed wires to prevent safety risk to the public. Next, the UI team provides an overview of the Municipal Dashboard, which provides officials with accurate, up-to-date information on outages and Estimated Restoration Times (ERTs). The team then reviews the role of municipal liaisons during storm events, who facilitate communications between UI and municipalities. Finally, the Vegetation Management team provides an overview on how maintaining the 8-foot distance between trees and electric infrastructure, known as the Utility Protection Zone (UPZ), helps prevent outages during storm events. At the conclusion of the event, the municipal leaders ask questions of the various UI experts, which provides time for constructive dialogue between the company and municipal officials.  

 

“Having the resources to proactively prepare for storms – such as investing in our vegetation management programs – is essential to meeting our customers’ needs and expectations during storm events,” said Chuck Eves, Vice President of Electric Operations at UI. “That is work we have been enabled to do in previous years, and we are eager to continue these investments going forward so that UI customers continue to experience shorter restoration times and fewer outages than some other utilities in the region. Whether during storms or on blue-sky days, we are proud of our great reliability and our commitment to safety for both our customers and our employees. No matter what the storm season ahead brings, all of us at UI are ready to respond.” 

 

Thus far, UI has hosted Storm Meetings with municipal officials from Ansonia, Bridgeport, East Haven, Easton, Hamden, Milford, North Branford, and North Haven. This week, UI will be conducting its Storm Meetings with municipal officials from Derby, Fairfield, Orange, and Trumbull. Remaining municipalities will follow in the coming weeks and months ahead. 

 

For more information on UI’s storm response efforts, including signing up for “Outage Alerts,” please visit https://www.uinet.com/safety/stormsafety/storminformation. Customers are also encouraged to sign up for UI’s mobile app for both storm information and AutoPay; links are accessible on our website at https://www.uinet.com/account/waystopay/app.  

 

Media Contact: 

Sarah Wall Fliotsos 

swall@uinet.com 

(757) 407-4255