ComEd Starts Playing Hardball

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EMAIL TO ME FROM A REPORTER WHO HAS BEEN WRITING ABOUT THE COMED PROBLEMS. SHE OFFERED TO HELP ME GET A COPY OF THE "ONE PERCENT" LIST FOR MY TOWN. HOWEVER, SINCE COMED GOT SUED FOR FAILING TO SUPPLY RELIABLE ELECTRICITY TO THE TOWN JUST NORTH OF ME, THEY'VE STARTED PLAYING HARDBALL.

Dear Mrs. L:

Here is the Web site with the reliability reports:

www.icc.illinois.gov

On the Web site, click on “electricity” and then click on “reliability reports” and then click on “Com Ed.” Look at the Table of Contents. Table J-2 is supposed to have geographical maps of the worst performing circuits. They did when I wrote the story for the May issue. This time, the maps are not there, and instead it says “embedPbrush” which makes absolutely no sense.

Another curious notation on the ComEd reliability report is in Section b.1 2006 where its states “Privileged and confidential subject to client/attorney privilege.” Perhaps that is due to the [NAME OF TOWN] village lawsuit just filed against ComEd?

I was able to find in Table 25 a reference to a transformer in [YOUR TOWN] that was among a few dozen in the Chicago area that were close to reaching peak loading  (loading is a measure of the power delivered through the equipment and reaches a peak when electricity use is highest, usually in the summer) in 2006, the last year the data is available.

One of the main points in my last article was that ComEd promised they will be providing reliability information to towns with the worst performing 1 percent circuits “some time between July and September.” So I assume, this information will allow each town to actually make sense of all the numbers and see exactly which areas have the worst problems.

I know the information on which areas of town have the worst performing circuits is out there, because ComEd provided it to the village [IMMEDIATELY SOUTH OF YOU].

Anyway, another reporter, an editor and I are supposed to meet with a ComEd representative next week to get exact information about the geographical location of the 1 percent worst performing circuits. I  will ask him about the lack of maps and the privileged information on the report. Let me know if you have any better luck navigating this reliability report.

Thanks!



NOTE FROM MRS. L: The only good news in all this is that a state senator recently got on the bandwagon to take ComEd to task for their inadequacies. And require the ICC to provide more user friendly access to information. The reliability report for ComEd is as thick as a phone book apparently. That may explain why downloading it has been taking forever.