PECO Aims to Reduce Widely Known Pockets of Electricity Outages

After February’s ice storm, PECO representatives began meeting with various local communities within their coverage area to help better understand the reliability of their service and help identify pockets where outages are significantly higher.

PECO’s External Affairs Manager Ted Dorand and the Director of Construction and Maintenance Steven Singh recently met with Falls Township residents to discuss just why coverage is spottier in particular areas of the large township and what PECO is actively doing to curb the issue.

According to Singh, PECO’s top priority is to “keep the lights on and the gas flowing” but a winter full of severe weather has made that mission much more difficult for the energy provider.

“It’s been a really challenging year for us and I’m sure it’s been a really challenging year for you as well,” he stated to the crowd. “This year we’ve had three storms that have knocked out 10 percent of our customer base and that has never happened to us before in the history of PECO.”

Singh reported that the ice storm from early February posed more challenges for PECO than even Hurricane Sandy or Irene and has forever changed how PECO  will adjust and modernize its facilities and infrastructure. According to Singh, PECO will spend an estimated $500 million this year on the maintenance of their systems, which includes the inspection of over 2,300 circuits.

Both Singh and Dorand said the ice storm helped trigger an extensive analysis of the entire PECO system, especially as residents at public meetings continued to stress the same problem areas.

Although Singh maintains that backlog issues have significantly decreased since 2013, residents within Falls rose to stress about issues they have experienced for years, even decades. Some residents mentioned that it wasn’t in times of severe weather but in times of perfect weather that they continuously lost power, some for even days at a time.

Singh noted that PECO will spend an additional $10 million this year to specifically focus on these areas where customer’s experience poor energy reliability and coverage, calling the areas “pockets”. He noted that they expect the program to be extremely successful and if it is not, PECO will continue to work until the issue for those residents is resolved.

“It seems like you’re more of a reactive company than a proactive company,” Al Wilson, a Falls resident of over 45 years, said. Wilson pointed out that less than a mile away from the township’s municipal building, a transformer was hanging from a pole, other lines he said are dangled between trees.

Singh noted to the group that vegetation is one of the largest enemies they need to combat when it comes to preserving lines, poles, transformers and the electricity of all residents. While PECO will spend an estimated $35 million this year in vegetation maintenance, Singh said they are looking at measures for even a more aggressive approach, including contacting residents and township board members when a tree poses a threat to PECO equipment and starting the Right Tree in the Right Place program.

Guido Mariani, an active Falls resident and occupant of the Thornridge section, said he has filed complaints against PECO in the past and has recently been urging the Falls Board of Supervisors to do the same. Mariani stated he doesn’t believe that what PECO says they will do and what they will actually do are the same thing.

“I have asked our board to file a complaint to get you people to do what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “I filed a complaint 14 years ago with the PUC and never had a problem after that.”

Singh noted that PECO is required to file reports and be audited through the PUC and that PECO still maintains some of the best reported statistics and service in not only the state, but the country as well.

“I’m not trying to bash you guys but I come from a totally electric house and well, I’m depending on you,” said another resident who didn’t identify himself.

Dorand said that if residents have not started to see efforts being made by PECO yet, they can expect to see them very soon.