Power Outages

Storms packing strong winds swept through parts of Baltimore and across the mid-Atlantic Sunday evening, and meteorologists are eyeing another chance for dangerous weather coming to the region Friday. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center is including most of Maryland, from Frederick to the east, in an area that stands a 30 percent risk of severe storms Friday . AccuWeather blogger Henry Margusity is expecting a similar area of threat Friday, with a particular risk of flash flooding in some areas.

Here we go again: BGE, which has a miserable reputation for maintaining its distribution grid, is seeking yet another rate increase ("BGE requests rate increase for electric, gas distribution," July 27). Subscribers are ever more susceptible to power outages because BGE has cut its operating costs at consumers' expense. BGE reduced its operating costs (and its ability to provide consistently available power) by reducing its maintenance and service capabilities. Now it wants the under-serviced subscribers to once again underwrite its managerial failures.

I found the article about BGE's outages ("Residents lash out at BGE over outages at hearing," July 26) very interesting - as I sat at home reading it by flashlight on Thursday evening. Once again, our neighborhood was without power for several hours. I cannot recall how many times we have lost power, from a few seconds to up to six days (twice), over the last 14 years. In our immediate area it seems to be the same pieces of equipment along the same stretch of lines that are the source of our problems.

We seem to be a bit schizophrenic about trees these days. Given the extended power outages of the last two summers, BGE - with the mandate, encouragement and cheers of many - has been on a tree-trimming tear. Wherever it can, it is trimming, troughing and topping off trees to eliminate branches that might fall on its wires. When none of these lesser tactics is deemed sufficient by BGE officials, they cut. In my neighborhood alone, I counted no fewer than 50 trees taken down, from crown to ground.

Because of the late June derecho, this is beginning to feel like the summer that wasn't. Many homeowners, neighborhood volunteers and leaders in Roland Park are still working to clean up and resolve problems created by the June 29 maelstrom in Baltimore. More storms and heavy rain add to the disruption. Almost three weeks after the derecho struck, a Thursday night storm on July 19 knocked out power to one of the leafy community's problem quadrants. Our Beechdale Road neighbors and others, for a total of about 59 households, were out of power again from 4 a.m. to near 11 p.m. Friday, July 20. These folks were also the ones whose power had not been restored for five days after the derecho darkened their homes and wiped out their refrigerators.

More than 30,000 customers lost power as a result of the thunderstorms Thursday night, mostly in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, and the majority had service back by late Friday morning, according to BGE Corp. Utility officials said on their web site Friday that they expect to have service restored to the vast majority of BGE customers by Friday night. They warned that additional storms are expected on Friday, and that likely would result in additional power outages to restore.

I wonder if those who criticize BGE for the way it responded to the storm-related power outages, particularly politicians like Gov.Martin O'Malley, have ever done the job themselves ("PSC pressed over outages," July 11)? I've been there, done that, and until you have tried it yourself, how about cutting the linemen a little slack? Rolling up on a huge, downed maple tree with 2,400-volt wires tangled in the branches is not something you want to jump right into. Doing it in the middle of a rain storm doesn't make it any easier.

Much has been said about the power outages caused by recent storms, but one thing rarely mentioned is the importance of getting people off the electrical grid. It's a national security issue when so many people are rendered helpless in a neighborhoods because their electrical power all comes from the local utility. The government should continue to offer incentives for households to install solar panels, wind turbines or geothermal systems of whatever size. It would help if even one or two people on a block had an energy source besides the grid.

The extended power outages for Baltimore Gas and Electric customers are a symptom of the decline of this country. When I was growing up in the 1970s in Northern Virginia, we never lost power for a week. Not when we received two feet of snow. Not even during Tropical Storm Agnes. My neighborhood in Howard County has been without power for 13 days within the last year due to three separate storms. What's changed? The change is that the focus of business has shifted. The only reason for BGE to exist now is to produce as much profit for it's parent corporation as possible.

Regarding Dan Rodricks ' recent column on power outages, I totally agree with the solution he proposes ("It's not astrophysics: Bury power lines," July 5). A number of years ago, during my time in the fire service, I entered into a discussion about power outages with a manager from BGE at an emergency management conference near Owings Mills. When I brought up the idea of burying distribution lines, I thought he was going to take my head off. He said it was impossible because it would take millions of dollars to bury the lines.