NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) - Rhode Island public utilities regulators say a natural gas outage that affected more than 7,000 customers last winter was caused by low pressure in a pipeline.
The 74-page Division of Public Utilities and Carriers report released Wednesday blamed the low pressure on high demand for gas driven by low temperatures; failure of a power system at a liquefied natural gas storage and vaporization facility; and a malfunctioning valve at a meter station.
The agency says it will oppose efforts by National Grid to recover $25 million in costs related to the outage from ratepayers.
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Thousands of residents of Newport and Middletown went without gas or heat for days last January.
National Grid in a statement said it didn’t agree with everything in the report but has been working hard to learn from the outage.
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