Block Island Power Company and National Grid customers throughout Rhode Island pay for the sea2shore transmission cable that goes between the mainland andthe island through a monthly charge on their electric bills called the “BITS” charge, which stands for Block Island Transmission System.
The cable has had its fair share of controversy in the few short years it’s been in existence – from the initial too-shallow burial off the shore of Fred Benson TownBeach and unexplained cost over-runs, to the recent, stymied attempts to re-bury it. In between came the revelation last spring that National Grid, which owns and operates the cable, had made millions in excess profits from it.
The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission held a meeting on Feb. 8, to report on the status of National Grid’s proposal to remedy some of the problems.
At the outset, PUC Chair Ronald Gerwatowski said there would be no votes or action taken at the meeting, which it later turned out, was because the matter underquestion was a federal one, not a state one, and so complex that he said, it “can kind of make your head spin.”Gerwatowski was the one who initially brought the matter of the