Forest Hill residents question BGE plans to prevent outages

Forest Hill residents gathered around information stations at a BGE open house Monday evening, where company representatives were on hand to answer questions from those who have experienced numerous power outages this summer, including some lasting several hours.

The most notable outage was during the July heat wave. BGE estimates 300 customers "experienced extended outages" on July 22 and 23, according to a company press release.

Virginia Lease, of Belvue Drive, was one of those customers. Her house was without power for 33 hours and 18 minutes, she said.

"It's been going on and off for years," she said during the open house. "It's been that way since we moved in '65."

Extended outages like the one in July, however, have not been the norm for her, Lease said, although it required her and her husband to sleep in their truck with the air-conditioning on.

Despite her frustration over the outages, Lease did say she thinks BGE has been trying to deal with the problem and with this meeting, she hopes things will change.

"I'm optimistic," she said. "I really think they're trying."

At the meeting, BGE employees had maps that detailed the upgrades planned for the area most affected by the outages. These updates are expected to cost $9 million, according to the company's press release, and continue into 2012.

The company already has "energized" new underground cable installed this past June, according to BGE media spokesperson Linda Foy. The underground cable is the first part in a series of upgrades, which include replacing underground and above ground equipment.

Since upgrading the cables, Foy said, there have been no outages in the area, despite several storms.

Some BGE customers, however, are still not satisfied, or at least skeptical, of the improvements.

Among them is, Joe Schmidt, of Darlene Road, who encouraged fellow residents at the meeting to contact the Public Service Commission and Northern Harford State Sen. Barry Glassman.

Tom Ziemann, of Boggs Road, said he experiences roughly three lengthy outages per season and the last one, during the July heat wave, blew out his dryer and Internet router, costing him hundreds of dollars.

Though he was hopeful about Monday's meeting, Ziemann was still doubtful.

"I think it's a feel-good meeting," he said of the open house, later adding that he would be satisfied if "it all goes through."

Ziemann wasn't the only customer complaining about damages from power surges. During the July heat wave, Anita and Tom Cunningham's well pump blew in a power surge, costing the couple $3,000, Anita said.

The couple, of Forest Lakes, has a very "long list" of outages, Anita Cunningham said, including a few times with outages lasting longer than 24 hours.

"We're a little perturbed about it," she said.

They were lucky enough to have family in the area, Anita Cunningham said, and stayed with their son in Perry Hall, but a few of their neighbors had to sleep in their basements to combat the heat.

Since then, there haven't been any lengthy outages, she added, but they have come home to clocks flashing, indicating that the power has been intermittent. She did say BGE offered a surge protector for the house, which they will probably invest in, but the couple is hoping it won't be necessary.

"The unreliability with the power," Anita Cunningham said, "we're hoping it doesn't continue in the winter."

As for customers with similar problems of surged appliances and other electronics, Foy said regulations mandate that unless the outages were caused by "willful negligence" of the company, BGE could not be held responsible.

For some, however, the outages affected more than just appliances.

Joanne Miller, who came with her husband, John, of High Point Manor, has multiple sclerosis, she said, which is exacerbated by heat and stress.

"The heat and stress are detrimental to multiple sclerosis," she said, adding that both can cause "bouts."

The Millers, too, have spent some time sleeping in their car and their basement to combat the heat, but Joanne Miller is hopeful the outages won't continue. In the past, she said, BGE tried to put "a Band-Aid" on the problem, instead of solving it.

Now, with the upgrades under way and more still planned, she said, "hopefully it won't be an ongoing problem."

The upgrades have been planned since 2010, Foy said during the open house. In the event of an outage, she added, customers are switched from the dead circuit to another one so they don't lose power while BGE works on the line.

In the case of Forest Hill, even when switched to a new circuit, several customers still didn't have power, because the working circuits were already "heavily loaded" with everyone else on the line, Foy said.

Upgrading and energizing the new underground cables and new equipment should address that problem, Foy said, and give BGE "more flexibility."

The situation hasn't necessarily been a new one for Forest Hill, she added, nor has the company ignored it.

"It was not until the heat wave last month that the residents began to reach out to the media," she said.

After hearing from customers during the heat wave who wanted specifics on the planned upgrades, Foy said, BGE scheduled Monday's meeting to address any questions. Nearly 50 families came out to this particular meeting, allowing BGE employees to answer many questions, Foy wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

Foy also wrote that the meeting is not "the last these customers will hear from us."

"We are committed to keeping them informed as the project progresses," she added.