A seven-day power outage at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory risked the loss of millions of dollars of critical cancer and COVID-19 research, lab officials said Tuesday, spurring their support for a bill to give the state emergency oversight over PSEG Long Island.
During the early days of Tropical Storm Isaias, when the lab lost its connection to the Long Island electric grid, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory officials worked desperately to reach PSEG decision makers to report and troubleshoot the outage that ultimately required a relatively simple fix, they said. When lab officials did get through, they received a response familiar to thousands of Long Islanders who attempted to reach the utility after the storm.
“We were always told, tomorrow noon,” said Stephen Monez, vice president/chief facilities officer at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory's facilities department. “Well, tomorrow noon for five or six days does not work for us to make critical decisions that we need to make to sustain our research.”
Monez said he backs a bill by State Sen. Jim Gaughran (D-Northport) that would give the Public Service Commission authority to investigate and potentially penalize or mandate changes at PSEG if power is not restored 72 hours after the governor declares a state of emergency. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s 2012 LIPA Reform Act made the utility subject to only “review and recommend” scrutiny by the Department of Public Service, unlike other state utilities subject to full Public Service Commission authority. The bill was expected to be introduced Tuesday and awaits an Assembly sponsor.
“When we see what happened across Long Island and at Cold Spring Harbor, we know it is very clear that we need to give Long Islanders the protections they don’t have right now,” Gaughran said.
The lab has underground power lines and a dozen diesel and natural gas-powered generators that ran 24/7 during the outage, putting incredible stress on that system, said Bob Collins, an assistant director of engineering. “It was nonstop."
While most the lab's buildings had power after the Aug. 4 storm, some went dark and employees had to work from home, losing crucial productivity, Monez said. The lab, which employs 1,110 and conducts $185 million in research annually, suffered no physical damage tied to the outage, he said.
More than 420,000 people were without power on Long Island after the storm, which had wind gusts as high as 78 mph.
LIPA and PSEG did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the bill. A Public Service Commission spokesman said the agency does not comment on legislation.
Cuomo spokesman Jordan Levine, in an email, noted the governor has directed the commission and LIPA to "work together to be as aggressive as the law will allow in holding PSEG-LI accountable for their failure to perform a basic function of the job we hired them for: preparing for and recovering from storms."
Another Gaughran bill already passed in the state Legislature — where Assemb. Fred Thiele (I-Sag Harbor), a longtime advocate for full PSC regulation of LIPA, has sponsored companion legislation — would allow the commission to audit LIPA and order reforms if it found waste, fraud or abuse.
Monez said he’d like to see LIPA fully deregulated, allowing facilities like Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory to purchase power from outside suppliers, as it recently did for its natural gas supply. LIPA has such programs, but he said the company's control makes them unfeasible.
It wasn’t just the lack of communication that was the problem for the lab during the outage, Monez said. PSEG hasn't designated Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory as a critical facility, so it doesn’t get priority in an outage, he said.
Increased oversight of PSEG is going to require a deeper review of the utility's emergency response plan, Gaughran said.
“There is no oversight of this emergency planning, none whatsoever,” he said. “We know LIPA is responsible for doing it, they’re not doing it, and that’s why we have to give this authority back to the Public Service Commission, similar to authority other residents have across Long Island.”
PSEG spokeswoman Ashley Chauvin noted some Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory buildings are on the utility's critical facility list.
"Our major account consultant had numerous interactions with our customer contact, was aware that the facility was on generation and escalated the job accordingly," she said of power restoration at the lab. "The [consultant] performed a site visit by meeting the customer and our electric service team. The facility was restored and we have agreed to hold a meeting with Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories to discuss infrastructure improvements."
A senior LIPA official noted the state Department of Public Service has “independent oversight responsibilities of both LIPA and PSEG Long Island and provides independent recommendations to the LIPA Board.” She noted DPS also oversees PSEG’s emergency preparedness and response, “along with LIPA. This oversight process is the same for PSEG Long Island as it is for New York’s other major utilities.”
Monez said that in addition to pushing for better communication and supporting Gaughran’s bill, the lab is exploring infrastructure improvements “to increase our power resiliency,” a plan he added, that will cost millions of dollars.
“The real risk is the longer you go on an emergency generator, if we lost one of those [generators] millions and millions of dollars of research would have been lost,” he said. “And that’s really the risk for the lab. Not having a reliable power source or the restoration of power in a timely fashion puts the lab at great risk from a financial point of view.”