Home Builders and Remodelers of Cape Cod
partnering with Eversource Energy on
Improving and Expediting the Process for
Electric Interconnections
May 25, 2017
Safety First and Always
Today’s Agenda
 Our Vision, Our Investment in the Communities we serve!
 What are we hearing from our Customers?
 Identify where are there Opportunities for Improvement.
 There is more to do! Always Improving.
 Questions?
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The Eversource Vision:
Best Energy Company in
the Country by 2020
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Eversource Investing in
the Community we serve!
$4.95 Million Donated in 2016
15,000 Hours at Over 85 Events
3,400 Employees and their
Families
Join us!
Eversource Walk for Boston Children’s Hospital
Sunday, June 11, 2017, at the DCR Hatch Shell, Boston MA
Start time: 2-mile starts at 11am
6-mile starts at 10am
Register at: bostonchildrens.org/walkwithus
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What are we hearing from
our Customers?
Feedback from Customers:
1.
More timely - How do we get it done faster?
2.
More proactive outreach - How do we improve communications?
3.
Provide the ability to talk with the right people at the right time facilitate customer requests to talk with Engineering and/or
Construction
4.
Provide our Customers with the appropriate information, including
transparency into Pricing
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Opportunities
for Improvement?
Phases of the project:
Initiate
• Customer submits
work order
application
• Customer submits
Site plans
• Customer pays
design deposits
and/or fees
• Eversource creates
Work Order
Safety First and Always
Design
• Eversource coordinates
site meeting (if required)
• Eversource finalizes
design & detailed sketch
identifying customer
scope of work and
Eversource scope
• Eversource Sketch,
Specs and customer
costs are mailed to
customer
PreConstruction
• Customer costs are paid
• Customer completes
their scope of work
• Customer executes
Private Property
Easement Agreement
with Eversource
Construction
• Eversource construction
is completed
• Customer is energized
• Meter is installed
• Customer has the Local
inspector approve job
• Eversource receives
approvals of Public Way
Rights & obtains local
approvals
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1. How do we get it done
faster?
Improve Initiation Timeline:
 While a PLAN is still required to initiate a work order involving new
developments, City/Town Approval is no longer required to begin the work
order process. Eversource and Developer to work in parallel while plans are
finalized
 As a work order progresses, please know that Rights may require CITY/TOWN
APPROVED PLANS for Public Hearings
 For new developments/subdivisions, please continue to provide the complete
subdivision layout on a disc or CD (CAD FILE)
We Heard You!
City/Town approved Plans are no longer required for job initiation
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1. How do we get it done
faster?
Improve Design Timeline for Long Lead Designs
Improve Construction Timeline for Simple Connections
Job Type
Engineering/Design
Construction
Average Duration
Simple overhead or simple overhead temp
(<400A)
1 - 3 weeks
1 - 3 weeks
2 - 6 weeks
Underground small service (0-75kva)
2 - 5 weeks
2 - 4 weeks
4 - 9 weeks
Overhead small service (0-75kva)
2 - 5 weeks
2 - 4 weeks
4 - 9 weeks
Underground medium service (75-300kva)
4 -10 weeks
4 - 8 weeks
8 - 18 weeks
Overhead medium service (75-300kva)
4 - 10 weeks
3 - 5 weeks
7 - 15 weeks
Underground & Overhead large service
(>300kva)
8 - 14 weeks
8 - 10 weeks
16 - 24 weeks
Developments (residential and commercial)
8 - 14 weeks
8 - 10 weeks
16 - 24 weeks
Customer stations, TNV's, SNV's and SC's*
16 - 20 weeks
10 - 52 plus weeks
26 - 52 plus weeks
* Tertiary Network Vault; Secondary Network Vault; Single Customer (station)
Jobs requiring rights from the city/town (dig in the street) can add an additional 8-12 weeks to obtain, prior to starting
construction
We Heard You!
Engineering: Design Cycle time reduced by 20% for jobs > 2 weeks in duration
Construction: Some Simple Service jobs types reduced from 5 to 3 days
Safety First and Always
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2. How do we improve
communication?
 Customer communications should be through the Primary Point of
Contact; the Account Executive (AE), Customer Service Clerk (CSC),
or Customer Service Engineer (CSE) and include the following:
 Arrange Site Meetings (if required)
 Initiate Work Order
 Coordinate Conference Calls (if required)
 Communicate Design Completion Date
 Mail out the complete Design Package with Customer Cost
 Communicate Planned Construction Date
We Heard You!
Kickoff Meetings with Customer, Customer Care and Engineering to ensure Scope is
clearly defined and Work Order is written correctly
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3. Ability to talk to the
right people
 Customer Care should always be the single point of contact to
coordinate regularly scheduled site visits if required
 Customer to communicate directly with Engineering, when applicable
 Customer to communicate directly with Operations (scheduler), when
appropriate
We Heard You!
Customer will have the ability to communicate directly with the Engineer or the
Planner/Scheduler
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4. Provide Customers with
a Complete Design
Package
Design Package to include:

Detailed Sketch identifying Customer scope of work and contractor scope of work

Equipment Specifications – including clearance requirements

Customer Cost Letter

•
Total Material costs
•
Total Labor costs
•
Outside contractors costs
•
Less System Development Credit
•
Vehicle Costs
•
Police Details
•
Less Revenue Credit
•
Carrying Charge
•
Sales tax if applicable
Energy Efficiency link to our Homepage (if applicable)
We Heard You!
Customer will have the ability to schedule a meeting to review any of these items!
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4. Transparency into
Pricing
System Development Methodology:
New Conduit- Customer is charged the COST DIFFERENCE between what they need, and what
Eversource installs.

Example: A customer needs three pipes (two for conductors + one spare) and ES decides to put in nine since
we are digging in the street. ES does two estimates (one for three pipes and one for nine pipes); the difference
between the two estimates is the system development credit.
New Infrastructure - Customer is charged a RATIO of the load that they are adding, divided by the
TOTAL capacity of the new equipment.

Example: A customer is adding 200A of load, and ES installs a new 350A line. The customer will be charged
for 200/350 or 57% of the cost of the line.
Upgrade of existing Infrastructure - Customer is charged a RATIO of load that they are adding,
divided by the TOTAL capacity of the new equipment.

Example 1: A customer is adding 200A of load, the new load plus the existing load exceeds the rating of the
line and ES needs to reconductor the line. The newly reconductored line will be 450A. They will be charged for
200/450 or 44% of the cost of the line.

Example 2: A customer is adding 200A of load, to an existing line rated at 450A. The existing load on the line
is 200 amps. There will be no cable charge to the customer.
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4. Proposed Elimination of
Residential Lookback
Agreement
Existing Line Extension Policy:

Contributions-in-aid-of-construction may be refunded to the Developer based upon a one-time review of Revenues
received during the 12-month period commencing two years after the date the Company has completed its work and
the system is energized.

An amount equal to two (2) times the Revenues received by the Company during the aforementioned 12-month
period will be refunded to the Developer. No additional or subsequent refunds will be made at any time.

In no event shall the aggregate amount of any such refund to the Developer exceed the amount of the contributionin-aid-of-construction for the specific System. In addition, the Company shall not pay interest on any contribution-inaid-of-construction, whether or not subsequently refunded to the Developer.
Proposed Methodology:

As part of the rate case, we are looking to eliminate this practice and provide an estimated revenue initially, as we do
with developments in the former BECo areas as well as commercial and residential customers in all areas.

This can certainly have pros and cons depending on how its viewed, but one definite pro is that contractors will
receive the credit up front and not have to wait 2 years to receive the credit.
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There’s more to do!
2017 Initiatives

Formal Escalation Process – Including a Priority List and Watch List

Measure adherence to SLA Timeframes (Design, Rights, Construction)

Continuously Solicit Customer Feedback

–
Continue Customer Satisfaction Surveys
–
Conduct additional Small Business Group meetings
Continue to Research Best Practices
–

Conduct additional top tier utility interviews
On-Going Outreach – Strengthening Partnerships
–
DPU Working Group Meeting
–
Contractor Forums
–
Municipality Meetings
–
NAIOP Briefing
–
International Association of Electrical Inspectors
–
Massachusetts Electrical Contractors Association
–
Home Builders and Remodeler’s Association
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QUESTIONS ?
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