District officials dispute Pepco’s claim ‘Mother Nature’ causes some outages

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Pepco wants to blame odd coincidence, falling trees and running squirrels for the 152 electricity outages in D.C. since January, but residents and local officials aren’t sure they believe what they’re hearing.

Ward 3 Councilwoman Mary Cheh conducted a hearing Monday to examine causes for a June 13 power outage in 30 busy downtown blocks, including the White House, that knocked out power for roughly 8,500 customers between 7:19 and 10:15 a.m.

Administrators for D.C.’s only electric utility said their worst 2 percent of power lines malfunction because of “Mother Nature,” meaning falling trees, ice storms, animal interference and corroding equipment. But D.C. People’s Counsel Elizabeth Noël was not convinced.

“The 1 percent of the time it’s not fine is how Pepco gets to be at the bottom of the barrel,” she said.

Noel and Cheh both noted neighborhood meetings, some reporting 150 in attendance, held in the past several months voicing outrage from residents that power fails often and, when it does, they can rarely speak with a Pepco employee to find out what is happening.

Noel said the D.C. Council has held hearings on energy problems since 1999 but “here we are in 2008 and we’re hearing the same thing.”

Pepco’s maintenance budget has increased 75 percent between 2003 and 2007, Senior Vice President of Operations Michael Sullivan said. He said the corporation’s biggest disruptions happen because local government and consumers impede necessary maintenance.

“Sometimes we just need to do more,” he said.

Three failed transformers at the 10th Street substation on June 13 dimmed lights in five Metro stations and snuffed traffic lights throughout a major business district during the morning commute. Equipment failure on two transformers compounded energy lost from another transformer taken off-line for a routine repair that morning. The remaining transformer couldn’t supply enough energy alone.

Though Cheh commended Pepco executives for their company’s quick response to the problem, she requested more information about company repair procedures and told Sullivan things must improve.

“I’ll hear about it if they don’t, and so will you,” Cheh said.

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