Repeated mistakes from the Burlington Electric Department over four years have prompted state officials to audit the department. They hope to pinpoint what’s going awry in the Queen City’s electric utility department.
Kerrick Johnson, the commissioner for the Department of Public Service, recommended the audit after the Vermont Public Utility Commission sent him a letter late last month including a list of 11 mistakes Burlington Electric had made in recent years. Many of the listed items detailed errors in how the electric department reported its work and spending to state regulators.
The utility commission saw a “pattern of errors, inconsistencies and shortfalls,” members wrote in the letter. In response, Johnson proposed that an outside firm audit the utility department “with a specific focus on internal quality controls,” he wrote.
Like every electric utility department in Vermont, Burlington Electric has a monopoly over its area, Johnson said. The department provides service for over 21,000 residential and commercial accounts, according to Darren Springer, Burlington Electric’s general manager. It also owns two large generating facilities, including a hydropower facility in Winooski and part of the McNeil Generating Station wood-burning plant in Burlington.
So, it’s important that the department’s reports to regulators are correct, Johnson said in an interview with VTDigger. “The repeated mistakes time after time over a period of years, what that demonstrates is a lack of professional rigor,” he said.
The electric department “certainly takes accountability” for its mistakes and acknowledges that it’s performing below the state’s expectations, Springer said in an interview with VTDigger.
The electric department does provide a reliable service and receives few complaints from customers, Johnson acknowledged in his letter.
But some of the department’s mistakes have been costly.
In 2024, the electric department failed to properly report to officials some of the operations at its Burlington wood-burning plant, costing the department almost $1 million in renewable energy credits, as first reported by Seven Days. The work slipped through the cracks due to staff turnover, Springer said.
After that, the electric department set up a number of internal checks to catch mistakes before it’s too late, Springer said. He claimed those checks have worked well.
Not all of the department’s mistakes are public facing. In another instance mentioned in the letter, the electric department overspent part of its budget by 33% due to invoicing errors. Other complaints relate to inconsistencies in paperwork filings to the commission, the letter shows.
Though the impact of those mistakes “absolutely affects ratepayers,” Johnson said, it’s hard to tell in what form.
While Johnson is unsure why things seem to be falling through the cracks, the pattern of mistakes makes him wonder if there’s more dysfunction that he isn’t seeing, he said.
“What else are we not seeing that could be an error? Are there opportunities not being seized?” Johnson asked hypothetically.
He hopes the audit can answer those questions. It isn’t decided what company would run the audit, how much it might cost or how long it might take. But the electric department will have to pick up the tab, Johnson said.
“Let’s be clear, Burlington Electric customers are paying for this,” Johnson said.
