Time for some leadership
Tuesday, Jul 11, 2023 - Posted by Rich Miller
* I usually try to avoid writing much about local Springfield matters, but this really jumped out at me. SJ-R…
City Water, Light and Power’s Chief Utility Engineer [Doug Brown] said the cost of the June 29 storm is somewhere in the neighborhood of $20 million to the utility itself. […]
The utility, he said, is focused for now on returning the grid to the state it was in. “Any discussion,” Brown said, of further improvements, like burying power lines or installing Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI, would be done “at enormous cost and with competing priorities, it would be up to the mayor and city council if we want to proceed in that direction in the future.”
The AMI technology would not have sped up the physical repairs but would have improved communication by automatically letting the utility know about outages, Brown acknowledged.
* WCIA…
Right now, the city learns that an area of the grid is down by hearing directly from customers. Other infrastructure upgrades might be too far fetched going forward, though.
“Where do you draw the line, you know, people say, we’ll bury the power lines that’s an enormous cost,” Brown said. “I don’t think that they want to pay for that kind of a rate increase for.”
These storms aren’t going to be any weaker or less frequent as time goes by. So, either pay now or pay later. Some actual leadership would be nice, for a change. Turn the discussion to the possibilities of a bright future with a new direction.
* Flashback to 2009…
Downtown Springfield’s skyline is becoming de-cluttered, block by block.
City Water, Light and Power crews have been burying unattractive power lines that run through downtown’s alleys for about eight years.
The 10-year, $7 million undertaking is about two-thirds of the way complete, according to the city-owned utility. Estimated completion date: 2012.
If they can do it downtown, they can do it elsewhere.
- Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:01 am:
I’d rather pay a rate increase to address the problem than a rate increase to simply restore the grid back to an extremely vulnerable status quo.
CWLP and the city appear to be of the belief that having to rebuild substantial parts of the grid, just to have it destroyed again and again every 5-10-15 years is acceptable.
Also, it sounds to me like Mr. Brown simply doesn’t want to do the work. Who is he to say what customers want? He’s an engineer. His job is to figure out how to build a safe system and let the elected leaders decide whether or not to make the investment.
- Chicago - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:03 am:
They need to upgrade like ComEd did. During these recent storms, our power has gone off 4-5 times but has come right back on because of that controversial legislation passed by the GA (and vetoed by Quinn…if he had his way, out power outages would still be a nightmare up here). For those of us in the Chicago area, that legislation has meant many many fewer power outages and the ensuing hassle that brings. ComEd upgraded their power grid so should cwlp.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:04 am:
== “I don’t think that they want to pay for that kind of a rate increase for.”==
In general, dude is probably right, Springfield has always accepted rock bottom services bc in exchange it gets low taxes.
But let’s look at this situation: I went a week without power and had to throw out hundreds of dollars worth of food.
You always pay one way or the other.
- DeeLay - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:09 am:
If anything its easier to go underground in suburban settings as there is less underground infrastructure.
Grid reliability is a major capex project for every utility and it’s not getting any cheaper to upgrade and improve the grid.
- Incandenza - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:14 am:
Agreed - but remember that the more sprawling a city is, the higher the maintenance cost for utilities, roads, and infrastructure is because the ratio of miles of each, per person, is smaller. If you want sprawl, you have to pay for it with high maintenance costs. The number of miles of power lines to replace, or that could be damaged in storms is directly related to the area of a city - and the lower the density of people in that area, the lower the tax base is to pay for it.
Long-term planning that is fiscally responsible in Springfield (and elsewhere) would encourage more dense construction & zoning and put limits on, or at least discourage urban sprawl.
- FIREDup! - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:25 am:
Mayor Buscher has been in the job for a little over two months. She’s cleaning up the messes and inaction of past leadership. Also of note, several subdivisions with buried line were without power for days. Agree that more lines need to be buried, especially in older neighborhoods with giant trees. The damage was surreal.
- SKI - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:28 am:
They did it downtown because Mayor Davlin was using downtown TIF money to pay for those projects. It would take an increase in the meter fee & energy in order to start doing it elsewhere.
Historically the council has been against these kind of increases.
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:37 am:
Quite a rude welcome for the new mayor, but allowing the utility to continuously deteriorate to this moment was absolutely predictable.
US EPA has been threatening since 2015 to shut down the water plant over their arcane practices. There is no backup water supply. Downtown is inaccessible as Public Works patches crumbling water mains that break on a regular basis. City Hall and the utility fought the Governor and Legislature tooth and nail over the coal-fired power plant, which is now a single burner and one accident away from sending 200k+ residents and dozens of state offices (including the Capitol) into total, long-term darkness.
The Red Cross emergency shelter closed yesterday, displacing dozens of city residents regularly hassled by downtown businesses and law enforcement. The Crowne Plaza and South Dirksen Parkway corridor STILL does not have power.
To be blunt, the City of Springfield’s leaders have needed to get their s**t together long before this storm. The squabbling on City Council and Department leaders is embarrassing and not at all reflective of the community’s dire needs. Please act like the capital of Illinois. k thnx
- Name Withheld - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:38 am:
Springfield has had issues for years with planning ahead on anything. Back in 2011 - I had discussions with Joe McMenamin (my alderman) regarding how Springfield should implement gigabit municipal broadband like they did in Chattanooga. My back-of-the-napkin math said they could pull in more than 37M a year, plus the infrastructure would have allowed for all sorts of related things - like the kind of notification system talked about here.
Joe just didn’t get it. Kept wanting more information that a private citizen just couldn’t get. Finally gave up on persuading him. Flash forward to 2020 - bet a city-wide gigabit internet project could have really helped with at-home learning.
There is a real resistance to new ideas and forward thinking that seems to pervade the town.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:42 am:
===They did it downtown because Mayor Davlin===
showed leadership.
Fixed it for you.
- New Day - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:47 am:
CWLP is a very badly run utility. I’m sorry for my Springfield friends that they have to endure one bad decision after another.
- Stormsw7706 - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 11:54 am:
Downtown wants and needs vs neighborhood wants and needs ? No contest. Springfield has rarely wasted a chance to enhance downtown. Buried power lines in the alleys before many of the heavily treed neighborhoods. Shocked.
- Anyone Remember - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 12:08 pm:
===Who is he to say what customers want?===
As an immigrant, figured out the good people of Springfield (and, for that matter, Sangamon County) believe infrastructure fixes / upgrades itself for free, does so between 2 - 4 AM, makes no noise, and doesn’t cause any inconvenience at all. Aldermen initially opposed the CWLP phone system (which is now seen as ineffective) as “too expensive” … . And how about the former alderman killing the parking meter upgrade because he didn’t like it?
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 12:13 pm:
The Derecho in Iowa in 2020 left a few of the hardest hit communities without power for about 10-14 days.
The restoration time in Springfield has been on par and even better with those times. In Cedar Rapids they had 40,000 people without power one week after the storms.
Should the utility bury more lines? Maybe.
Ask CWLP for a cost assessment for highly impacted neighborhoods and then find out if it is worth it.
- don the legend - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 12:17 pm:
The new Mayor owes the unions and the realtors big time for their massive campaign contributions. That nearly 60 Million ($60,000,000) fund balance will be a huge temptation. Will it be used for quick job creation and payback or wisely spent on those things that will provide a long term return?
The alderpersons will determine the answer. Past City Council history does not provide much optimism.
- Flyin'Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 12:26 pm:
*cough* IBEW *cough*
- Glengarry - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 12:45 pm:
One of many reasons I no longer reside in Springfield.
- Squirrel - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:03 pm:
The communication was so, so, so bad. I don’t blame the mayor for CWLP’s current problems, but I hope that she has the wherewithal to take this issue to the council and make a case for burying all the lines. Another storm like this - or worse - will happen sooner or later.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:06 pm:
===Also of note, several subdivisions with buried line were without power===
That could be because the city’s power distribution system is not smart. Power can’t be easily rerouted around trouble spots.
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:08 pm:
Don - There are longstanding capital needs that led to this sudden $20M bill for equipment, overtime and contractual assistance required to restore the utility’s basic functionality, and you’re proposing the money just sit there and depreciate instead of go into local capital projects? Save for the rail consolidation project, that sounds a lot like the thinking that led to the city’s present condition. No Hunter Lake. No new water mains. No new energy source.
For crying out loud, my Dad grew up getting rashes from swimming in Lake Springfield during the Vietnam War. Imagine what he said when his grandchildren came home a day at the Lake with the same rashes. None of CWLP’s problems are new! Infrastructure like this is supposed to be a basic government function - not a political favor.
- Dirty Red - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:13 pm:
= The communication was so, so, so bad. =
What comms channels does the City have when electricity is out?
As tough as Mayor Buscher’s new tenure has been, the post-Jim Leach era in Springfield media began at the same time. Poor Steven and Zach are doing their best to cover as much as they can for the SJ-R, and WTAX went off air, but you still need power to access digital subscriptions and social media.
- Squirrel - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:18 pm:
-What comms channels does the City have when electricity is out?-
Police, aldermen and alderwomen, city employees, volunteers could have (and some did) safely entered neighborhoods to communicate with their residents. Loudspeakers, flyers, etc. The fact that it took multiple days to even have a press conference for the media who were available was an early bad sign. Also, not everyone lost power. People were sharing info with others as best they could. Communication should have been a priority for those who weren’t actively working to fix the power issues.
- Chris Wetterich - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:25 pm:
=Springfield has rarely wasted a chance to enhance downtown.=
Not lately.
- Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 1:28 pm:
Don’t over look staffing at CWLP too. In 2007 they had 65 total lineman, they have 42 now.
23 lineman under a highwater mark - on a storm day that at minimum is a 16 work day you have lost 368 total work hours due to a reduction in workforce.
Would an extra 368 hours of work done each day made a difference in restoration time?
So many moving parts to the machine here its’ too easy to say “bury more lines”.
Have you seen some of the electrical system supply chain problems? For big projects now you need to be ordering a year out for certain parts.
- Arsenal - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 2:13 pm:
==Springfield has rarely wasted a chance to enhance downtown.==
Oh, it absolutely has, though I’ll concede that it’s often treated the neighborhoods even worse.
- btowntruth from forgottonia - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 2:41 pm:
“Right now, the city learns that an area of the grid is down by hearing directly from customers.”
That just screams that they need to upgrade their systems pronto.
- Anotheretiree - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 3:05 pm:
The homeowner is responsible for the line from the pole to the house. Aren’t you obligating everyone to hire a contractor to reconnect if their line is already underground, or trench new if not. People may not be happy with the unexpected bill you are volunteering them too.
- Bud's Bar Stool - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 3:59 pm:
=== Some actual leadership would be nice, for a change. ===
And on that note, sure would be nice if CWLP would engage in some elementary proactive communication. The twitter feed is nice, but only for those on twitter or who go looking. Surely, CWLP has email addresses and/or mobile numbers for most/all of its customers? We have had precisely zero communications from CWLP to alert us that occasional blackouts will continue, etc.
- Dave Dahl - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 5:38 pm:
@Dirty Red at 1:13pm == As tough as Mayor Buscher’s new tenure has been, the post-Jim Leach era in Springfield media began at the same time. Poor Steven and Zach are doing their best to cover as much as they can for the SJ-R, and WTAX went off air, but you still need power to access digital subscriptions and social media==
WTAX neither went off the air nor was the Jim Leach station. Thanks.
- Truthiness - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 6:16 pm:
Serious question, why do we have CWLP and not just be part of Ameren?
- Soccermom - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 6:23 pm:
Anotheretiree– I think they now have a magic machine for trenching. Seriously. We’re looking at having our phone line buried, and it’s amazing. Very little disruption, and not horrifically expensive
- SKI - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 7:10 pm:
Rich,
Absolutely agree Mayor Davlin showed leadership in rebuilding the downtown electric infrastructure. You should’ve seen some of the stuff that was getting replaced. I was only pointing out that the funding source used wouldn’t be able to be used citywide.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 7:16 pm:
===Aren’t you obligating everyone to hire a contractor===
Absolutely not. If you want to keep your line above ground, do so. Nowhere did I suggest that. Red herring arguments are the worst.
- Rich Miller - Tuesday, Jul 11, 23 @ 7:34 pm:
===why do we have CWLP and not just be part of Ameren? ===
There was a time when Springfield had the lowest electric rates in the Midwest. Not so today. It’s a good question that should be asked a whole lot more.