Con Ed To Cough Up $530K For Food Spoiled In Isaias Outages

WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NY — Some customers of Con Edison in Westchester County who lost power for days after Hurricane Isaias tore through the region last August will receive checks to cover the cost of spoiled food.

New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that an agreement with Con Edison of New York is providing additional reimbursements to thousands of consumers in Westchesteer and New York City who suffered food losses after power outages following the storm that ravaged the tri-state area in 2020.

More than 2,800 customers will receive an average of $185 for reimbursement.

The agreement resolves an investigation of Con Edison in which the Office of the Attorney General found that the power company failed to pay reimbursements in accordance with the instructions it had provided to consumers for food spoilage on its claim forms.

"While Con Edison offered reimbursements to affected consumers, it failed to live up to the commitments it made and left thousands to foot the bills for spoiled food resulting from the power loss," James said in the announcement.

The claim forms Con Edison provided to consumers who lost power after Tropical Storm Isaias offered to reimburse consumers up to $235 for spoiled food if they provided just an itemized list of the food without any other proof. But to receive more — up to a maximum of $540 per account — Con Edison instructed consumers to provide a proof of loss, and gave as examples cash register tapes, store receipts, credit card statements, cancelled checks, or photographs of spoiled items.

In numerous cases, however, consumers who provided just photographs were sent letters saying that Con Edison required receipts for the spoiled food, James said. In other cases, the company rejected claims for food that was purchased more than 30 days before the storm, notwithstanding that there was no such requirement on the claim form’s instructions.

James noted that because the nation was simultaneously battling the coronavirus pandemic, many consumers had stocked up on groceries that could be frozen and held in their freezers for several months.

Under the terms of this agreement, Con Edison has already or will soon pay more than $534,500 to reimburse consumers who claimed more than $235 in spoiled food. The company will review those claims previously submitted and will send checks for remaining balances owed — an average of $185 for 2,874 consumers.

Hundreds of additional consumers will likely be eligible for reimbursements in the coming weeks, James said.

Consumers eligible for the supplemental reimbursement do not need to do anything to receive their checks, and more than 2,600 checks have already been sent out.

Con Edison will also pay the state of New York $20,000 in costs and penalties for violating both New York General Business Law 349 and Executive Law 63(12) law, James said.

In all, about 1.3 million New York customers experienced power outages during the Aug. 4 storm; most were without power for several days. Altice-Optimum, Con Edison, NYSEG, Orange & Rockland Utilities and Central Hudson faced steep penalties for their responses. The state's public service commission cited inaccurate communications, website problems and inadequate pre-staging.

Con Ed said 257,000 customers lost power in the 2020 storm, the company's second-largest storm outage in the company's history, after Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

At the time, Con Edison argued that its response was good, given the extraordinary impact of the storm. "Our storm response plans enabled us to restore more than 300,000 customer outages from Tropical Storm Isaias more than two times faster than after Winter Storms Riley and Quinn and 1.5 times faster than Hurricane Irene," spokesman Allan Drury said.

SEE ALSO:

• Con Edison Faces $102M Fine Over Tropical Storm Isaias
• NYSEG Fined $1.5 Million For Tropical Storm Isaias Failures