The embattled president and chief operating officer of Connecticut Light & Power, the state’s largest utility, submitted his resignation Thursday after coming under fire for how the company handled massive power outages following last month’s snowstorm. Parent company Northeast Utilities said Jeffrey Butler stepped down on Thursday.

Butler was a familiar face to many frustrated CL&P customers, who watched him appear twice a day for televised briefings at the state’s emergency operations center on the utility’s restoration efforts after more than a foot of snow fell on the state in the days before Halloween. At the peak, CL&P had more than 830,000 outages, a record for the utility, representing about 77 percent of the company’s total customers.

Butler publicly promised that 99 percent of customers would have their electricity restored as of eight days after the storm. However, that pledge fell short, prompting Gov. Dan Malloy to criticize the company for its handling of the restoration efforts.

Malloy accused CL&P of failing its customers by breaking self-imposed deadlines to restore power. He said he spoke with Charles Schivery, the head of Northeast Utilities, and demanded changes be made in how the utility is managed.

Malloy had put together a special committee to examine the response by utilities, state and local governments and others after Connecticut was hit with the remnants of Hurricane Irene. He later expanded that panel’s duties to investigate the response to the October snowstorm. Malloy also reached out a private firm to review the response by CL&P and The United Illuminating Co., the state’s other major utility that dodged much of the criticism surrounding the last storm.

(Source: CBS)