Mayor Questions ComEd About Outages

invited ComEd representatives to attend meeting after nearly as a result of last week’s storm.

The representatives were there to explain why some city residents went without electricity for over three days. The mayor also wanted to know why other residents lose power on a more regular basis when the weather is less erratic. 

“We need assurances of what you will do to get us up and running,” Rotering told ComEd External Affairs Vice President Michael Guerra and External Affairs Manager Eric Duray. “There is a need for creative ways to communicate.” 

Rotering warned ComEd to take care of whatever causes power outages regardless of the weather before a new contract is signed between the city and the provider. 

“We want to look at [frequent outages] as part of our annual agreement,” Rotering said. “We will get [state Rep.] Karen May (D-Highland Park) involved.”

May, a former City Councilwoman, was in attendance. 

Power outages nothing new

Though the storm brought the issues to the surface, the frequent interruption of service is nothing new. Rotering specifically mentioned the north side of Marion Avenue and Stonegate Drive in the south part of Highland Park as an example. 

“There are neighborhoods that experience power outages with regularity in normal weather,” Rotering said. “We have to look to the entire infrastructure.” 

She reported City Hall, the Highland Park Public Library and Lincoln School lost power this week. 

ComEd spokesman Bennie Currie told Patch his company was unaware of any ongoing problems in Highland Park. He claims the public utility works regularly to resolve issues with municipalities. 

“ComEd maintains regular communications with Highland Park officials and we work to address any issues regarding service reliability as quickly and safely as possible,” Currie said. “ComEd is not aware of any outstanding issues regarding service reliability in Highland Park at this time.” 

On April 17, 2008, neighboring Deerfield filed a class action lawsuit against ComEd in Lake County Circuit Court alleging individual citizens had suffered 82,347 outages since 2000, according to Deerfield’s website. 

In August, 2009, the case was dismissed because the judge thought the matter should be resolved by the Illinois Commerce Commission rather than the courts, according to the website.

11,000 lightning strikes 

Guerra and Duray explained what was done to restore power to the 3,379 of 13,716 Highland Park Commonwealth Edison customers whose service was interrupted during the storm. They had nothing to say about the frequent good weather outages. 

“Over 400,000 customers lost power. There were 11,000 lightening strikes,” Guerra said of area wide damage. “We had 440 of our crews working 12 hour shifts and 160 crews under contract from other areas.” 

Duray explained the triage procedure used when a major storm occurs. He told the Council and the public in attendance how ComEd strives to assist the greatest numbers as quickly as it can. 

“We restore our transformers and trunk lines first. Without that, the power doesn’t go anywhere,” Duray said. “Then we take care of the hospitals and public safety.” 

He explained some isolated severe problems may need more time to resolve. 

Rotering called for a meeting between ComEd representatives and city officials.

“If at all possible that meeting should be open to the public,” Councilman Paul Frank said. “The community should be included in the strategy.” 

Rotering has insisted the meeting be public and Currie said ComEd has already agreed. Rotering hopes May will be present as well. 

In other storm related matters, City Manager Dave Limardi said warning sirens would sound as soon as a tornado warning was issued for Highland Park regardless of whether a funnel cloud is seen.