Niles officials weigh in on Attorney General’s ComEd criticism

• Reprints

Updated: February 20, 2012 3:12PM

Nature is not to blame for the power outages related to the summer 2011 storms, according to a recent report from the Attorney General’s Office.

The report claims that Commonwealth Edison’s lack of tree-trimming and neglect of the equipment is the culprit for the extreme power outages that left hundreds of thousands of people in Northern Illinois without power.

If the Illinois Commerce Commission agrees with the Attorney General’s report, ComEd may be forced to pay claims to residents who had to throw food away during last summer’s storms.

“In my professional opinion, ComEd’s failure to adhere to consistent and adequate vegetation management practices in a uniform manner has resulted in subpar reliability performance and extensive customer outage periods caused by tree damage,” stated George Owens, an expert witness and engineer who testified in the report.

Inadequate vegetation management is not the only cause of the problems, Owens explained.

“There are definite investments in electrical infrastructure and equipment which ComEd could have made to improve the reliability of its distribution system,” Owens stated in the report.

“Last summer’s wave of storms were among the worst in decades and we understand the frustration that 2.5 million service interruptions can cause for the customers who experienced them,” ComEd shared in a statement. “We also understand that even though ComEd’s system reliability and outage restoration performance compares favorably on a national basis, our customers are seeking a stronger response.”

The Attorney General’s office conducted various field inspections during a week in December in various suburbs that were strongly impacted by the power outages, including Niles, Morton Grove, Park Ridge, Glenview, Arlington Heights and others.

Assistant Village Manager Steve Vinezeano said ComEd representatives came to speak with him and the village manager about the issues they had related to power outages.

Vinezeano said village staff told ComEd about certain areas that are hit hard, such as some businesses near Golf Road and Milwaukee Avenue.

Vinezeano said he has not heard anything about reimbursements for residents who had to throw away food or suffer other damages due to power loss.

Vinezeano said one of the biggest issues the village has with ComEd is communication. He said that ComEd representatives told residents of Niles very different time frames for service to come back on than what the computers indicated, and that was also different than what village staff was told.