County Executives: Utilities Must Give Us Data

Less than two weeks after a massive storm disabled power to more than three quarters of a million Maryland residents, elected leaders wrote in a letter to a state regulatory agency that utility companies need to improve their performance and disclose critical outage information when government agencies request it. 

In the letter to the Public Service Commission, officials urged the regulatory agency to consider changes to the way utilities operate, including burying some power lines underground, mandatory staffing levels and improved disclosure of outage information to local municipal officials.

The letter was signed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett, Howard County Executive Ken Ulman, Baltimore City Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, and the executives of Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Harford, and Prince George's counties.

In Howard County, it was five days after the powerful “derecho” storm touched down in Maryland hit that County officials were able to get a list of specific addresses with outages by combining the county’s GIS mapping technology with grid outage information, the Baltimore Sun reported; not from the utilities themselves. 

“Companies would not disclose this data,” the letter to the PSC read.

If they had provided street-level information, it would have greatly assisted government efforts to provide support in these areas. Utility companies can and should provide detailed outage information to local governments, and the June 29 “Derecho” storm showed that local governments cannot fulfill public safety responsibilities without it.

The letter also addressed the “well-documented” process of burying power lines underground and insisted that the PSC “must undertake a study that examines the specific locations in the Pepco and BGE service areas that would benefit most from underground wire placement,” as well as a study of the conditions of above-ground equipment.

According to the Sun, BGE officials said they looked forward to talking with the public officials on ways to "enhance our restoration efforts."

During the recent storm, crews from across the country and Canada mobilized in Maryland to assist utilities as they repaired damage from the high winds. While acknowledging that emergency-level staffing at all times is not a solution, the letter questions the adequacy of current staffing levels and preventative programs such as tree-removal.

“As elected leaders of Maryland’s largest jurisdictions,” the letter read, “We stand ready to work together to make sure major metropolitan areas are not disabled by a single weather event, whether it involves snow, rain, ice or wind.”

In all, 19 deaths were reported statewide during the 12 days of extreme heat following the storm, the Sun reported. 

BGE it had restored power to 748,000 customers after the storm, including outages that resulted from subsequent, less damaging storms last week.