Customers Who Lost Power in 2006 Blackout To Receive $100 Payment

Residential customers who lost power for up to 10 days during a sweltering summer blackout in 2006 would receive a one-time payment of $100 from Consolidated Edison under a settlement proposed yesterday by the private utility. The $17 million proposal includes payments of $350 for some large businesses, according to paperwork filed with the state's Public Service Commission.

The money would be distributed in the form of a credit on an upcoming bill. Con Ed critics were sharply split over whether the payment would amount to anything more than a slap on the wrist for the giant utility, which was accused by some of failing to properly maintain its aging electrical network and mismanaging its response to the blackout in Queens.

State regulators said about 174,000 people lost service or experienced low voltage during the crisis, caused by the simultaneous failure of several major electrical feeder cables. Many residents are still angry.

"There is a large segment of our group that did not want to settle at all," a leader of the Western Queens Power for the People Campaign, which helped negotiate the deal with Con Ed, Alyssa Bonilla, said.