And Mayor SRB isn't putting any pressure on BGE to hurry up. She should be doing something as Mayor, oh wait, she's the kind of mayor that poses for pictures to put up security cameras rather than assigning cops to the area. She is such a waste of government money.

How many times are we going to repair above ground facilities? Why are better ways of delivering power not being researched and implemented.

I am sure it costs money, but these storms will get worse (if you believe in global warming), so when do we invest in below ground utility installation?

Despite BGE claims about how much they practice for Storm restorations, it seems the speed with which they restore their system continues to lengthen. Let's face reality, actual measured wind speeds never reached true HURRICANE strength, yet vast sections of BGE's power distribution system went down during Irene.
A first step to improve BGE's outdoor power system would be to replace old Wood "telephone" poles with Steel poles which won't break when a tree falls into them.

underground distribution lines might not be subject to falling branches and the like, so Ben is right--they are much more reliable during a storm. But--power lines can go down for other reasons as well, and then the underground lines take much longer to repair (think about having to first find where the issue is when you can't just look up) and then dig the lines up to fix the problem. So, it's a tradeoff.

Wow, GW.

How many trees do you suppose made direct hits on wooden poles?

It was the many trees and limbs that took down the wires between the poles. The areas with the highest number of outages have the heaviest concentration of trees. (And yup, Lutherville (21093) has a lot of trees. We're down until at least Friday.)

OK. Pepco caught a break. The center of their territory is a little west of BGE's territory and suffered less damage.

GW mentions "actual measured wind speeds never reached true HURRICANE strength". Perhaps the question should be directed to the trees that fell. Maybe they aren't as strong as their predecessors -- because in general, trees take out power lines.

Replacing the existing overhead system with an underground system can be done but would be very costly. The only way any utility would do that would be if they were allowed to recover the cost through higher rates.

Were any of you outside between 11 pm and 5 am? It was pretty darn windy outside.

Underground wires are a good idea, but no panacea. We have usually reliable underground lines in Columbia, but lost power at 3:30 AM Sunday and have been dark since. I don't know if the problem is further up the line or something underground. BGE's initial estimate of repair date was last night at midnight; that's come and gone. I'm hoping for a pleasant surprise when I get home, but not counting on it. Thankfully the weather has been so nice. If we were in heat wave, there'd be a lot more complaining.

Residents were given ample warning
regarding the impact the storm could have on utility service. If you are that upset go buy a whole house generator, then you won't have to worry. Stop whining. How would you like to be the people up North with all the flooding.
Sorry Comcast is slow. Poor you can not watch your soap operas.
Get a life

BGE has done a terrible job in communication with its customers and setting expectations. We too were given hope of having power restored by 10:30 tonight, but BGE has fallen back to its default date of Friday at 11:30 pm.

This is absolutely ridiculous and I hope Governor O'Malley holds BGE accountable for its poor performance during this event.

Jay --

Pepco took Hurricane Irene very seriously!  As soon as we were aware that our service territory would be in the storm’s path, we took appropriate action.  We not only determined it an all hands event, but also immediately reached out for additional outside resources to help repair the potential damage and restore any customers without electrical service it would leave behind.

Our employees who directly restore power were immediately scheduled to start working extended shifts.  In addition, our employees who have secondary roles were immediately scheduled.  Vacations were postponed or cancelled and everyone’s attitude was that this storm was our first test since those “utility reliability standards required by the legislature and being developed by the Public Service Commission” you referenced.

The storm packed sustained winds of more than 60 mph and approximately 8 inches of rain.  Those two things (heavy rain and wind) are a recipe for weakened trees coming into contact with power lines and disrupting customers' service. At peak, we had 220,000 customers without power.  Within the first 24 hours, we reduced that number by more than 60%.  That was done even though we had to halt restoration as a result of the safety issues associated with overhead crews working while winds exceed 35 mph.  Our performance in the event (we currently have more than 95% of customers who lost power restored) is a result of proper storm preparation, an improved restoration strategy, the appropriate request for mutual assistance, and the commitment of all of our employees and not simply because we “caught a break.”

Regards,
Andre Francis
Pepco Social Media Representative

For those of you without power, I feel bad for you. It took 8 days to get everyone's power back for the 1 million who lost it during Isabel. BGE has restored 70 percent of almost 750,000 in basically 2.5 days. I realize the harder and more rural ones are last, but I'd say they are doing better than Isabel.

Just look at the damage posted by people on the Sun website. Pretty extensive. Why is BGE taking longer than Pepco - 700,000 customers out vs. 200,000. AA and Balt Counties got hit hardest - off the bay and sandy soil.

Pushing 72 hours and power is still out in my neighborhood in Carroll County - I've seen exactly one power operation in the area duing that time - Downtown Sykesville has been without power the entire time.

I haven't seen a single tree in the lines in the area.

I live in Baltimore City, no trees falling down. A block full of elderly residents and no electric since 3 am Sunday morning. No communication from BGE except a recording when you call saying service will be restored Friday or Saturday. This unexceptable. It seems the ones in office don't care. In fact, they say BGE are doing a great job. If you have power please don't comment.

My power in North Baltimore was out for about two days, but given the number of branches and trees that came down it doesn't seem like an unreasonable situation. I didn't panic, and I didn't waste my time calling BGE repeatedly. I'm sure the number of lines down due to branches wasn't helped by BGE's reluctance to offend customers by aggressive tree trimming. Once the power is restored and they resume normal tree-trimming operations the next outcry will be from the same people denouncing the cruel cutting of trees and branches near power lines. Guess what? You can't have it both ways. You don't want BGE to trim your trees? Then suck it up and live with some power outages the next time a hurricane blows through.

I grew up in a third world country, but I never had to wait more than 24 hours for the power to be restored. We haven't had power since Saturday night and still waiting, but sometimes enough is enough. It might be time for BGE to learn lessons from Pepco.

Our neighborhood is without power since Sat. 8pm. - 4 days! However, new houses just 300 yards away with new infrastructure didn't even notice the storm. Heck, we even lose power due moderate thunderstorms, like in late May-June we had 3 outages after every T-storm! Contacting BGE was waste of time, of course. To some commenters here... Irene WAS stronger South from Maryland, so PEPCO region was better prepared, hence fewer power outage. BGE has been ENJOYING quiet times without investing into upgrades to half-century old lines like ours.

Over the years, BGE has stopped trimming trees in advance of storms. I live in a rural part of AA County and the trees that felled lines in our area have been hanging over wires for some time. While I'm relieved our power was restored this afternoon, a drive down any of our local roads show the next ones likely to cause trouble. While hurricanes cannot be anticipated, named storms are not unusual in MD and, as a public utility, preparation should be more than automated calls to customers warning that a storm is approaching. Given the fact that Constellation's former managers wanted to emulate Enron with their Lehman Brothers dealmaking, perhaps E de F will actually run BGE as a public utility again.

The solution is to regulate the utility companies again and add stiff penalties for situations like this. Residents have no other choice. Face it, you can play the game of buying resold electricity from a broker but it's BGE who delivers the service. It's not all their fault; trees that are near lines or could cause major outages need to be removed. Yeah, it's a shame to cut down a tree, but when the results yield what we had this past week, the choice is clear. While we are at it, lets look at how power is delivered to major sub-divisions. The current distribution system is old and dated and could likely be enhanced to operate better. Think there is any cash for that - not as long as the companies operate for profit. Any extra cash goes into pockets of shareholders.

When I was growing up in the 1960s in NE Indiana, we suffered from a week long power failure.

The cause? The Palm Sunday tornadoes.

The closest tornado to where I lived was about 30 miles. That was NOT the one that caused the blackout, though. It was one that was further - it hit the main power line into the county - the one on the 100 foot tall steel towers that are spaced about 1000 feet apart, and took out five consecutive towers.

We've had nice weather lately, but the Palm Sunday tornadoes hit in early Spring, when the weather in NE Indiana is a LOT colder.

I survived the outage, and I suspect many complaining here can too. If you can't, too bad.

I agree with some of the others here in that the longer term solution is to put more lines underground. Anytime you get wind you get trees hitting power lines and taking down the power.

Right now I don't think there is any real incentive for BGE to put the lines underground because when the power goes out like this storm, they spend all this money, then go to the commission request a rate hike and recoup most of the cost.

Kind of a bad scam. I realize it would take some money/time to redo the lines but it sure isn't cheap fixing all this after every major storm not to mention all of the money people are losing when they don't have power.

Has anyone else noticed that all of the trees that they show on the news that have taken out power lines appear to be dead? The limbs snapped like dry twigs, and there is no root structure left.

Joe blow sits in his living room staring out at a huge dead oak tree in his front lawn that has been dead for years, but he has done nothing about it. With the cost of removing a large tree running into thousands of dollars,who can blame him? He ignores the tree, and along comes a storm and takes out the tree and all the power lines next to it. Who should be made to pay?

He should, unless he notified BGE ahead of time.

BGE should survey trees that pose a risk to their lines and take care of them ahead of time before they become a problem, but that would require some forethought, and would put the 6 extra guys that you see standing around on any BGE job to work, and god forbid that should happen. The "delivery" charge that has been going up and up on your bill should cover some forethought, instead of going into the stockholders commissions.

Did anyone hear on Fox Morning News 9/6/11 local station last week about BGE customers having to pay for Hurricane Irene power restoration efforts ? If so could
someone respond.