BGE officials said they have isolated the problem that has caused regular power outages for Patterson Park and Highlandtown residents in recent weeks.
Residents in a 12-block area have put up with seven to eight outages in the past month, with the longest lasting 11 hours, said Robert L. Gould, a spokesman with BGE. He said most outages haves lasted about an hour, with 180 to 755 homes affected. The last outage occurred July 23, when temperatures were high enough to trigger a city Code Red alert.
"We realize the reliability has not been to our standards," Gould said, but he said that crews have identified the failing piece of equipment believed to be the cause. "It would appear to be BGE equipment underground" that "we've been able to isolate and reconfigure around," Gould said.
Residents said they've heard this before.
"They've told us this a multitude of times," said Kevin Bernhard, president of the Highlandtown Community Association. He said he's been contacted by numerous residents about the outages, including one family with two people who relied on medical equipment that needs electricity.
On top of the outages, Bernhard said, residents in the same area are dealing with low voltages, raising electric bills because appliances are forced to work harder.
Last weekend, Gould said the company's mobile operations center took questions from the residents, who have raised concerns about the outages that occurred during record-setting temperatures.
Gould said the next step required BGE crews to create an outage at some point to test the equipment to be sure of the cause.
"This is something we are working through," Gould said. "We would prefer the high temperatures to subside out of concern for the residents."
As for the residents, Bernhard said, "everyone is bracing for the worst."