Thursday, July 08, 2010
Pepco Update
It sounds like some people are back up and running, but not everyone. The Pepco maps says some others can expect to come back online later today, while a third group will need to wait until tomorrow. Why did this take so long? Pepco says that we're basically all using more electricity now. Back when we all ran off 100 amps the old cables were fine, but we had to go and get heavy-ups enabling us to run 200, or sometimes even 300 amps. And we've been using that extra juice and placing massive demands on older cables. When stuff started to go south Pepco had to replace large swaths of cable, whether that just make a tiny repair, or the problem would have happened again quickly. The obvious question is why Pepco didn't anticipate this. Isn't upgrading underground cables as demand increases sort of a part of Pepco's job? Does anyone know it there was some sort of plan to swap out the cable before this happened?
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8 comments:
i agree with all that, elise, but my question is, how come the residential is suffering and yet all the businesses are fine? I don't want them to suffer, don't get me wrong, but are they on a different system?
NOT LOOKING FORWARD TO A THIRD SWEATY NIGHT OF HALF-POWER.
Thanks to all the comments on previous threads about this- esp the info on calling DC Homeland Security- we just asked that someone go check on our elderly neighbor. We weren't able to get much information from Pepco by simply calling their customer service line. It's very frustrating that Pepco wasn't prepared for this. I can survive a few really hot nights without AC, but I'm not so sure my elderly neighbors can.
I tried to post this on the last article, but it didn't go through... Pepco not only anticipated record usage due to the heat wave, but was confident it wouldn't result in outages:
http://mddailyrecord.com/2010/07/06/heat-could-bring-record-electric-use-but-not-outages/
“'We could reach our all-time peak for Pepco'... All three company spokesmen said they are not expecting any blackouts or outages... 'We’re asking them to conserve as far as their largest nonessential appliances, like your washer and dryer.'"
So yeah, this sounds like Pepco dropped the ball. I wouldn't call AC during a record setting heat wave a "nonessential appliance".
Hi eye street,
it's only some residents in certain areas. The businesses may, just by virtue of their locations be in the clear. I know that when the power goes out where I live the people down the block, or behind me, may have full power. The grid is kind of weird.
We also had a problem a couple of years ago with recurring partial power loss where Pepco literally had to wait for the thing to die in order to find it. It wasn't like we had 50% power. It was like 1/2 the lights and outlets just went dead for a while each time it happened. I thought it was an issue in my house until I saw that my neighbors had the same problem. I had never heard of an issue like that before moving to DC.
Hey Neighbors-
I just spoke with representatives from both Tommy Wells' & Fenty's offices. PEPCO has told both that all power has been restored to all of Ward 6. Wells' folks are skeptical and called asking for confirmation as they want to go back to PEPCO if this is not true. Seems that everyone I can contact is at work or someplace where they can't easily run home to check... if you get this and are home-- or can contact someone on Linden who may be home-- please do so and post a note to let us know. Linda w/ Wells (who has been super helpful) is concerned that we won't know that the power is still off until we get home from work-- which will make it more difficult for them to contact PEPCO after hours...
yeah, i get the idea that there are different circuits for different blocks etc., but it seems like the load is the load and if that load blows a transformer, we should all be down or whatever. it's just strange that the only real increase in load around the neighborhood is the new businesses--yet they are, it seems, on a different circuit or whatever.
anyway, again, not looking forward to getting home, getting the info that "it'll be fixed at 10 p.m." and then lying there sweating till 2:30 a.m.
PEPCO Claims number is: 202.872.2452. You have to call them to ask for a claim form to be mailed to you. They will also issue you a claim number. They said to keep an itemized list of losses-- so take good notes as you throw everything out of your fridge! Reciepts, invoices and other supporting documentation are encouraged. Oh, and she said that at this point, they are only investigating to see IF they will pay.
Forgot to mention- I think that Brent Ferrell (and his dog, Malaki)deserves a round of thanks... he was a one man medic/homeland security representative/security guard for the neighborhood over the last few days. Well done!
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