Editor's Note: The following letter to the editor is from Jeannette M. Mills, Baltimore Gas & Electric's vice president of customer operations and chief customer officer, encourages residents to actively prepare for impending storms and anticipated power outages.
While the exact path of Hurricane Sandy continues to fluctuate, as soon as it became apparent there could be a possible East Coast landfall, BGE began the process of pre-mobilizing employees, calling in assistance from out-of-state crews and preparing for a hurricane impact. This is expected to be a very dangerous storm with high winds, heavy rain and possible flooding – all of which can cause whole trees, tree limbs and water to damage our electric equipment, resulting in outages for customers.
Just as BGE is preparing, we strongly advise customers to take the time now to plan in advance to protect families and property, particularly given the strong possibility of extended power outages. Preparation includes monitoring the weather and noting BGE’s number—1.877.778.2222—for reporting an outage or a downed wire. Have mobile devices charged in advance, and for customers who rely on electric medical equipment, it’s essential that you have back up power sources and prepare for the option of an alternate location to wait out the storm in case of an extended outage. Those who have generators should ensure they operate them safely.
Just as delivering safe and reliable electric and gas service is a vital responsibility for BGE, ensuring that our customers are informed is also extremely important. For updates on the storm, visit our website, www.bge.com, follow myBGE on Twitter and Facebook, and stay tuned to the news. We want to thank all BGE customers in advance for preparing to weather Hurricane Sandy.
Sincerely,
Jeannette M. Mills
Vice President, Customer Operations & Chief Customer Officer
Baltimore Gas and Electric Company
I assume you're a grown up. Act the part. Take control of your situation. Get a battery backup system. Get a generator. A full-house backup generator can be had for $10-20k. That might sound expensive, but if your life depends on it it's cheap.
Are trees on an individual’s property above or around power lines? Or are your neighbor’s trees? How about the community one lives in? If the answer is yes to any of the questions, it’s not BG&E’s responsibility to prune the trees. “Outages are rare except in except in severe floods”…. Every year a storm hits the mid-Atlantic region, if one speaks of infrastructure regarding power in older neighborhoods, the cost would be unbearable. Between environmental permits, wetlands, and crossing individual’s property, it would be a nightmare for any incorporation to install underground utilities in existing neighborhoods. If I am not mistaken, businesses are in business to make money or at least that’s the share holder’s intent.
Be grateful and quit complaining. These folks are away from their families, missing birthdays, anniversaries and friends.
If Verizon can lay fiber optic the whole length of I95 and Rte 40, this CAN be done. Once it is done, BG&E won't have to pay for thousands of crews and trucks to come visit every year.
I'm of the camp that doesn't rage at BGE, but I truthfully don't know the whole story or I could comment more appropriately I guess. I'm listening and reading though!
One of the costliest parts of a highway widening project, from design, right-of-way or easement acquisition, and construction is utility relocation. Take a drive up Belair Road between the Baltimore beltway and Bel Air and count the number of poles and the miles of line. You may start having second thoughts.
One of the largest power outages of all time occurred in Italy (55 million people) due to storms. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Italy_blackout#Causes
Are European utilities publicly traded?
Yes they are publicly traded.
The source is myself. I have lived in several countries in Europe, and ran a multinational, which meant a LOT of travelling throughout Europe. The source you cite related to 400kV powerlines which are carrying power from a generating source. These are cables on pylons, not poles, and this particular cable crossed the alps, where it is geoligically impossible to bury them, Also note the average outage was 3 hours, with the longest outage being 12 hours. The innefectivness of ENEL, the Italian energy supplier, meant there were rolling blackout for two days, as they scrambled to get ther natinal grid working properly. 3 hours, or 12 hours - it's a lot different that what many Marylanders have to suffer.
But the sheer cost of removing poles in the US and putting everything underground is unfathomable. You make it sound like it is inexpensive, it is not.
All roads require resurfacing; that is the time to deal with this. This is a one time cost, whereas pulling crews from around the country every year is using up the funds that should go towards updating the infrastructure. Power poles and excessive signage turn this state from a beautiful state to something that is now outdated and a little scruffy.
BGE's stance is that customers would have to shoulder that burden. Hardening costs money - how hard do you want to go?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_windstorm#Notable_windstorms I was actually on a cross-chanell fery from France to England when the totally unpredicted 1987 storm hit.
You should also know that some of the people you are responding to have numerous AKA's and have very little creditability. Just click non their names and read their comments. It's easy for people to make comments seated in front of their warm house with their computers and power. Did I mention gasoline?
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