BGE service in Forest Hill a lightning rod

It's easy to be critical of natural monopolies like Baltimore Gas and Electric.

When we flip the switch and the light doesn't go on, at best it's an inconvenience.

The list of modern conveniences that have evolved into near necessities is a long one, starting with the basics like refrigeration, including medical devices for some of us and even extending into the realm of computer connectivity.

Problem is, when the power fails regularly, as has been the case lately in a section of Forest Hill, there aren't a lot of choices. Sure, electric deregulation came with a lot of talk about energy choice, free market competition and being able to shop around for the best price per kilowatt hour.

But that didn't change the reality that power is delivered over a network of wires, and the ownership of those wires hasn't changed. For the majority of people in Harford County, those wires are owned by BGE. When the power goes out, even if you're paying the Larry, Moe and Curley Power Company of Lower Slobovia for your electricity, BGE is still the company responsible for delivering it.

Responding to complaints about the delivery of electricity, BGE last week sent some representatives to Harford County to update the people of Forest Hill affected by this latest series of outages.

"It's been going on and off for years," said Virginia Lease, one of the affected people, adding: "It's been that way since we moved in '65."

Well, heck, four-plus decades ago in 1965, most of Harford County was relatively remote, Forest Hill included.

The problem is, that may well have been OK back in '65, but Harford County isn't a backwater, and its electric customers shouldn't expect service that is Third World by modern standards.

To its credit, BGE has committed to improving the situation, making note that projects costing millions are in the works for the area.

But there's more to the problem than just the matter of BGE and a few people in an area where upgrades were due, or maybe overdue.

In general, the deregulation of power companies has left most people in the community fairly powerless when it comes to dealing with corporate giants.

The notion that certain natural monopolies (power companies being a primary example because of the impracticality of allowing half a dozen redundant networks of power lines) need relatively close regulation by the public sector is one that has fallen by the wayside in recent years.

It is, however, a notion that is worthy of reconsideration. A vigilant local or regional public service commission with a little bit of regulatory authority might well have noticed a problem brewing in Forest Hill a few years back and required some sort of fix.

The problem with such regulation, of course, is when it works, no one notices the problems that were avoided.

It's unfortunate, because there are times like the Forest Hill situation when a little bit of regulation might go a long way toward avoiding problems.