Politics & Government

ComEd Pledges Improvements to Service, Communication

Buffalo Grove officials continue to voice concerns about the electric company's service after last summer's outages.

Relief is coming to a handful of Buffalo Grove neighborhoods that were plagued by power outages last summer, according to ComEd officials.

Representatives from the electric company told village officials Monday that scheduled improvements will help protect service to residents of the Woodlands of Fiore subdivision near Routes 22 and 53, the Rolling Hills neighborhood north of Aptakisic Road and residents near Old Oak Drive/Golfview Terrace and Deerfield and Busch parkways.

The work, which varies by location, will include the installation of additional lighting protection and a system that will detect outages, the replacement of underground cables and tree trimming.

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“You don’t need a direct lightning strike to damage power equipment,” Ken Cicirale, ComEd’s north region engineering manager, said. 

Engineering plans are in the works, and the improvements are slated for completion by the end of March, Cicirale said.

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Monday’s meeting followed an initial discussion between village and ComEd officials in August, after some Buffalo Grove residents during a five-week period.

“It’s unfortunate that it took this substantial incident to call your attention to the ongoing problem in this area,” Trustee Jeff Berman said. “We expect to hear from you proactively if you find there are continuing issues, as well.”

While the tone of Monday’s meeting was friendlier than it was , Buffalo Grove officials continued to voice concerns about service interruptions and ComEd’s communication with residents. 

“How can we get better information, more accurate information about where our outages are and when they will get repaired?” Village President Jeff Braiman asked.

He reminded ComEd officials that many customers were told that their power would be restored within 24 hours, but some .

Art Barsema, ComEd’s director of external affairs, said that improvements to ComEd’s technology will make a difference. Plans include adding more lines at the company's call center and better integrated technology that will allow customers to receive more accurate communication via text messages and the Internet.

“I would say by the next storm season, we will have put all these plans into place to make sure our information is as accurate as possible and as consistent as possible,” he said.

Berman stressed that communication about outages and should be communicated directly to ComEd customers, rather than to Village Hall staff, who found themselves in the middle last summer as residents struggled to get information about when their power would be restored.

“We saw a very lackadaisical response in terms of putting yourself up front and dealing with the issues,” Berman said. “Inaccurate, overly optimistic forecasts are far more difficult to deal with and ultimately more disruptive to your customers than just telling them the truth. You’ve got people’s lives, people’s goods at risk, and people’s health at risk.”

Barsema said communication will be further improved as analog meters are replaced with “smart meters” over the next decade, as the company prepares to implement the . The new meters will provide real-time information to resident and automatically notify ComEd when service is disrupted, he said.


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