Groups want a probe into the June storm-related power disruptions in Indianapolis

Indianapolis, Indiana – Two consumer protection organizations have asked the state to look into why it took AES Indiana several days to restore electricity to customers following a storm last month.

The Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana and the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor (OUCC) have asked the state’s utility regulatory commission to launch a formal investigation.

The groups want the IURC to review “AES Indiana’s practices and procedures for storm outage restoration.”

According to AES Indiana, a storm on June 29 knocked out power to more than 81,000 customers, many of whom were without power for many days.

By the evening of July 4, the company stated that all of its customers had their full power back.

“We understand that the June 29 storms were especially intense and that additional storms occurred in the following days,” Indiana Utility Consumer Counselor Bill Fine said in a news release. “However, we need to gather the facts regarding the outages, especially the factors causing certain customers to be without electricity for more than five days.”

AES Indiana and the IURC did not respond right away.

Following a storm in July 2001 that left tens of thousands of Indianapolis customers without power for days, the utility, then known as Indianapolis Power and Light, was subject to a similar probe.

After agreeing to reimburse customers who were without power for longer than 36 hours a $100 credit and make improvements to its system reliability and outage management system, IPL and the IURC reached a settlement.