* The Northwest Municipal Conference has proposed some changes to the way ComEd responds to storms, including forcing the company to set up regional 24-hour operations centers to inform customers what’s going on. The company’s response reputation is horrid, for good reason…
“I would receive messages from them that they had a crew on site, on scene, working on the repair, not realizing apparently that I was physically standing at the scene, watching the fact that there was nobody there, no work was being done,” said Wilmette Village Manager Tim Frenzer. “And in fact, the work wouldn’t be done for days.”
Busted. Cold.
* The super-intense storms last summer knocked out power for thousands of people. Without a smart grid, power outages cannot be contained and can become wider blackouts. Also, no smart grid means the company has to rely on customers to tell them when their power is out. But the company was clearly overwhelmed and residents had a right to be angry. And now, nobody wants to listen to the company’s ideas. This suburban editorial sums up a lot of the baby with the bathwater anger…
Until ComEd can get service returned quickly in the wake of power outages, residents should not be saddled with the bells-and-whistles-filled smart grid.
Too many people lost too much food in the last string of outages to reward ComEd with its coveted prize. Too many people suffered through days without air conditioning and nights with lights to give the power company a new gadget and higher electric rates. Too many traffic signals were dark, creating dangerous intersections, and too much emergency manpower was needed to baby-sit downed wires for state lawmakers to hand the power company yet another golden egg.
No one is saying that ComEd’s equipment should have withstood the powerful storms that rolled through the region this summer, but for residents in the northern suburbs to be without power for two, three and four days in the storms’ aftermath is simply unacceptable. Not being able to get power restored in a timely manner has to have consequences.
Keeping the smart grid from ComEd is not punishment, it is practicality. It is like your teen-age son asking for a Mercedes after he gets his driver’s license when he hasn’t mastered driving the 10-year-old mini-van yet. Any smart grid talk has to wait until ComEd proves itself worthy of the upgrade.
The editorial completely ignores the fact that we need both upgrades. The old grid needs to be shored up and the smart grid added to provide extra protection. But, ComEd is so unpopular that people just don’t want to listen. I can’t really blame them.
ComEd would probably be wise to go back to the drawing board, come up with a very big “dumb grid” and service upgrade and use that to justify the smart grid. And it should drop all that other crud about executive salaries and the like out of its bid to get around the Illinois Commerce Commission. If it doesn’t and its bill doesn’t pass, Illinois will be missing out on a chance to bring itself into the 21st Century.
ComEd’s new president said recently that Alexander Graham Bell wouldn’t recognize the telephone today, but Thomas Edison would be quite familiar with our existing 19th Century power grid. Enough with the games, already. And the AARP ought to back off the silliness about how “dangerous” smart meters are. It’s like the fluoridated water goofiness all over again.
* Craig Clausen penned a rah-rah op-ed for the Tribune today. Despite the exuberance, he makes good points…
In other states, smart meters are set to become the smartphones of the electricity business. Your current home electric meter knows one trick — dial spinning. If a human doesn’t read it each month, you end up receiving an estimated bill that may take months to reconcile to your actual usage. A smart meter is electronic, not mechanical. It can accurately bill you each month, week or day — your choice. It allows you to buy market-priced power at any given moment and even at tomorrow’s likely price.
A smart meter can tell you how much power each appliance is using and what your carbon footprint is. Want to ask your appliances how they’re feeling and whether the fridge might be headed for a motor failure? There’ll be an app for that.
Those inconvenient power outages we all endure will shorten because ComEd will instantly know who has power and who doesn’t. Crews can go to exactly the place they can do the most good. If a squirrel has his last meal chomping into your power connection, the meter can tell ComEd to restore service before you get home. You’ll know about it because the meter contacted you too. There’ll be an app for that.
Working late? Send your meter a message to save hours of cooling time if you want. There’ll be an app for that too.
Electric vehicles need smart meters to make sure that battery recharges are done during the wee hours of the night when prices are low. That app could come free from Ford or GM.
* But then there’s this…
A law on the books for more than a decade sounds like it might have helped people like Sheldon Langer, who last year lost $600 of groceries after five days without power. And the village of Glenview, which spent tens of thousands of dollars in overtime this summer for firefighters and police officers who baby-sat downed wires and helped open emergency cooling centers.
The law was intended to compensate victims by holding Commonwealth Edison financially accountable for extreme outages, defined as those that leave more than 30,000 customers without power for at least four hours and could have been prevented.
But 14 years after the law’s passage, ComEd has never had to pay out for such losses.
ComEd simply found a way around the law. It’s a very crafty company, that one. And that’s why it shouldn’t be allowed to draft legislation like this smart grid thing.
* Related…
* Unplugged: ComEd’s worst days 2008-2010
* Exelon: Good for shareholders, not always customers: Sunday’s column was about why the Maryland Public Service Commission should reject Exelon Corp.’s applicaiton to take over Constellation Energy and BGE. One reason is what knowledgeable people describe as Exelon’s and utility ComEd’s unstated motivation to close their Zion Station nuclear plant: to decrease the supply and increase the price of electricity.
* Exelon: Sustainable Dividend Supported By Strong Cash Flow
* Wunderlich Analysts Reiterate a “Buy” Rating on Exelon
* Sen. Garrett Proposes Legislation To Force ComEd Improvements During Storms
* Suburbs ask state to hold ComEd accountable
* Suburbs unite to demand better ComEd response
* ComEd to address outages in Palatine, plan for improvements next week
* Referendum for electricity aggregation program could be on March ballot
- Lincoln's Penny - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:07 pm:
Everybody wants smart grid and everybody knows customers are going to have to pay for it.
The problem is when ComEd demands all the other costs be included in the formula rate. And they want the ICC to be taken out of their profit setting responsibility. Think about that, ComEd is a monopoly with no competitors, that under current law is afforded a reasonable rate of return. The ICC has to look at their risk (outstanding debt, capital structure, current market rates) and determine what their return should be. Not good enough. They want to general assembly to set their profits.
ComEd wants the kitchen sink. They have made a lot of changes since they introduced HB14, but none of the changes got at the real issues with the formula rate. Its unfortunate because they could have regulatory reform in exchange for smart grid, instead they continue on their bean-counting ways…
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:11 pm:
===Everybody wants smart grid and everybody knows customers are going to have to pay for it. ===
That’s not true.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:15 pm:
They overreached by trying to cut out the ICC, plus their performance has been horrible. Plus, didn’t the IPA head say he was able to save consumers $1.7 billion the last few years by bird-dogging Edison.
With that track record, they have major credibility problems.
- SportShoz - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:21 pm:
I think everyone is for improving our electric system, whether it be “smart grid” or what have you. The problem is, as Rich points out is having it be a “ComEd” bill - where ComEd is the only one with guarenteed benefits.
ComEd has already shown that customers aren’t saving under their “smart meter” pilot. http://www.chicagobusines
s.com/article/20110528/ISSUE01/305
289982/pilot-test-of-comeds-smar
t-grid-shows-few-consumers-power-down-to
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:34 pm:
The case for a smart meter helping out in a storm is a red herring. When the wires are down, there is no path to transmit the Information that the meter has no power.
The smart mter is something that is more for ComEd’s benefit where they will get to fire the meter readers and institute time based usage charges.
That also ignores the new pathway for hacking the electrical grid the meters open up
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:36 pm:
Plutocrat03, the information isn’t transmitted by wire. It’s done wirelessly. So your “red herring” argument is actually false.
- 47th Ward - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:48 pm:
Yeah, ComEd shouldn’t be writing their own self-serving legislation. That’s ALEC’s job.
Can’t anybody play this game?
- Cincinnatus - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 2:58 pm:
My favorite current wrinkle:
ComEd is being grated a rate increase to institute SmartGrid, yet if a person opts out of the program, there is a $25 month fee. See Naperville for instance.
ComEd would have been much smarter to offer a break to those choosing to participate (heck, they keep telling us SmartGrid saves money) instead of penalizing those who do not want to play their game.
Rich also nailed it right on the head when he said that DumbGrid needs its own section of the legislation. ComEd has been racking up profits for years without doing a dime’s month of upkeep of the old infrastructure.
And somebody explain how “an app for that” will work without a fully integrated SmartHouse? ComEd stops at the meter. If you have SmartAppliances, you don’t need ComEd anyway.
- Its Just Me - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 3:20 pm:
If Garrett is for it, I’m against it.
It probably means it is some pie in the sky that sounds pretty in a press release but is a mess in the details and won’t work right.
- Left Out - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 3:34 pm:
For me the main problem with the ComEd bill is that it attempts to cut out the ICC from the rate increase process. All changes to the grid cost money and in the end the power user will pay for it. With that said, the power user should not be forced to pay too much and ComEd should not make too much profit. To keep the balance, as I see it, is the role of the ICC.
As to the upgraded grid, it needs to be smarter. However, the smart meters are mainly of use to ComEd. They will save ComEd lots of money and save consumers only a small amount. Smart meters are also a major security hazard for for every power user.
The grid can be upgraded to improve reliablity by being smart at points other than at each electrical meter. This type of upgrade can be impemented at far lower cost than by updating every meter. This type of upgrade will also maintain the current level of security for the power user.
- reformer - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 3:36 pm:
Another slight complication is the new BGA report about the $1.5 million Com Ed and Ameren have donated to legislators and party committees.
- Crow04 - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 3:43 pm:
Just to be picky, AC was invented by Telsa, not Edison. Edison wanted DC and tried to discredit AC
- Rich Miller - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 3:47 pm:
Just to be picky, it’s Tesla, but I get your drift. Still, the point stands.
- JBilla - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 4:42 pm:
I want a smart grid and know I’m going to need to pay extra. That’s fine. I think the problem was that the bill was clear as mud as to what “smart” improvements meant, whether efficient transformers, community energy storage batteries, on demand appliance support, wireless data, or the like. Need a better bill.
- DuPage Dave - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 7:04 pm:
This is not about smart grids or smart meters. Everyone can see that is the wave of the future.
This is about a bill that gives too much to ComEd. It makes it too easy to raise rates.
What have they done with all the money they’ve taken in since the last rate increase? Clearly they have not put it into maintenance of the grid or lines or repair capabilities.
A lot of politics stinks but this really, really smells.
I don’t like to agree with Quinn but he is right on this one.
- Sick of It All - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 9:19 pm:
Come on CUB, come on Governor, show some teeth!
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 9:48 pm:
the wireless signal goes to a land line somewhere. The router or wireless access point lose power and you lose connectivity.
- Plutocrat03 - Wednesday, Oct 12, 11 @ 10:16 pm:
Do we need to introduce this variable to our grid?
“digital electrical meters into what is essentially an internet for electricity makes the smart grid vulnerable to hackers. And according to some smart grid experts, an educated hacker with $500 worth of materials and equipment could gain control of thousands—or even millions—of meters. Once a hacker has access to the grid, mass blackouts (and chaos) could ensue.”