On January 21, 2019, at approximately 8:30 p.m.,The Narragansett Electric Co. known to its customers as National Grid, in response to dangerously low pressure in its natural gas distribution pipelines, specifically, Newport and Middletown, shut down its natural gas distribution system on Aquidneck Island. This resulted in a gas service outage to approximately 7,000 customers and retail businesses in Newport and Middletown.
The gas service interruption, which caused a total loss of heat and hot water, persisted from two days to approximately one week, at which time the affected homes became legally habitable as gas service was restored. The events of January 21, 2019 occurred within a set of natural gas pipeline systems serving Rhode Island. The natural gas pipeline systems which serve Aquidneck Island consists of two types of systems. The first is the interstate pipeline system, which distributes natural gas from Massachusetts into Rhode Island that is operated and owned by Algonquin Gas Transmission, LLC, The second system is the intrastate local gas distribution system, which was owned and operated by National Grid who received gas in Portsmouth, from and then distributes the natural gas though its local transmission lines to its customers in Middletown and Newport.
The Plaintiffs asserted in their Complaints against National Grid and Algonquin that the low-pressure condition resulting in the interruption of gas service, commencing on the morning of January 21, 2019, was the result of the alleged negligence of the Defendants, which in turn were the precipitating factors leading directly to the outage.
After extensive discovery Brian Cunha from Brian Cunha & Associates settled the case at a mediation for $2,000,000.00, which was subsequently approved by the Federal Court in Providence RI.
The settlement was limited to loss of use of the premises due to the outage National Grid had previously paid more than $3,000,000.00 in aid its Newport customers for lodging, food and heating assistance.
In addition, more than $1,000,000 was given to aid persons in Newport and Middletown in need of heating assistance. Under the settlement Ninety percent (90%) is being donated to the low income home energy assistance program (“LIHEAP”) of the East Bay Community Action Program (“EBCAP”for the benefit of Newport and Middletown residents and ten percent (10%) to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (“LISC”) for the benefit of businesses in Newport and Middletown RI.