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* To quote the Tribune editorial board, “Wonder how ComEd would have scored had the firm done its survey after the last two big storms”…

ComEd ranks 112th out of 124 utility companies nationwide and next-to-last among large Midwestern utilities in J.D. Power and Associates’ residential customer satisfaction survey released this morning.

ComEd did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

ComEd’s score of 590 out of a possible 1,000 topped that of the Illuminating Company, a utility based an Akron, Ohio, that scored 586, the study shows. Ranking No. 1 among large Midwestern utilities was MidAmerican Energy, based in Des Moines, Iowa, which scored 679.

ComEd’s 2011 customer satisfaction score by itself —one of six criteria that make up the total score — is next to the bottom nationally, said John Hazen, senior director of J.D. Power.

Sheesh.

* The storm’s impact was particularly ferocious in Lake County, and the local county board chairman has declared a state of emergency…

To assist with the response efforts, Lake County Board Chairman David Stolman proclaimed a “State of Emergency” in Lake County. This action facilitates the sharing of resources and supports the County’s request to the Illinois Emergency Management Agency for assistance with debris removal. While it isn’t clear that any state or federal disaster assistance will become available, Lake County Emergency Management is compiling initial damage and cost assessments from communities in regard to all of the recent storms.

* A few more stories…

* Storm outages send ComEd customers flocking to hotels - Rooms fill quickly as families seek air conditioning, Internet access, electricity for medical equipment

* ComEd: Smart Grid would have cut storm power outages

* 4th day of power outages in Lake Co.

* Power outage swamps suburban ERs

* The Question: How would you rate your electric utility company? Explain.

posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:29 pm

Comments

I think the issue is with people who are not on automatic bill pay. Every letter I get from ComEd is a “Final Notice.” I pay every month. Why can’t they just send a regular bill once in a while? I feel like a degenerate getting one of those.

Comment by JBilla Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:34 pm
I dread leaving Springfield and CWLP. It reinforces the notion that public utilities should indeed be public and not private! Witness the constant power outages by ComEd.

Comment by D.P. Gumby Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:39 pm
A+ I’m a very happy CWLP customer. They care about the people of Springfield (their customers), instead of shareholders and Wall Street ($$$). You’ll never see a CWLP “yacht” on Lake Springfield.

Comment by SportShoz Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:45 pm
Power still out, so what is my opinion of ComEd?

While I appreciate the massive damage I see around us, I do not see any crews working to fix the problem. It took more than 48 hours to see any repair trucks, they left and are not back yet!

The cost cutting has crippled their ability to respond.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:48 pm
I never had much of an issue with ComEd until this year. I lost power during the blizzard and have lost power quite a bit during the last couple of storms.

I realize that outages are going to happen during severe weather, but I also think ComEd could do a better job with communication. Therefore my rating would be mildly dissatisfied.

Comment by Frank Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:52 pm
My last power outage was during an ice storm about 4 1/2 years ago. My power was off maybe a couple of hours. Are these outages common out in the burbs? Because I just haven’t had a bad experience with ComEd.

Comment by Cheryl44 Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:57 pm
CWLP isn’t perfect, but I think they area great model for the concept of public-owned utilities. I find them very responsive to technical problems, and they have a good long-term strategy that includes a nod towards green energy production. Their internal politics and employee discipline problems are a separate issue, but even there, I feel like I have more power as a voter to tell the city how I feel about the job they are doing, than a Com Ed customer.

Com Ed isn’t as bad as some of the Central IL providers that got big by swallowing up competitors, but never bothered to upgrade the old and decrepit infrastructure owned by those absorbed companies. When bad storms hit the middle of the state, that company is always days, even week, fixing the damage. i feel it is because maintenance and infrastructure improvement doesn’t rhyme with “shareholder value”.

Comment by Gregor Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 12:57 pm
I had a lot of problems with CWLP when I first moved back to Springfield. It seemed like my power was always going out at the most inopportune times, like once on election day. And there seemed to be no accompanying reason, like a storm.

The service has immensely improved in the past couple of years, however. I had a power outage earlier this summer during a storm, but it was late at night and was no big deal.

Comment by Rich Miller Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:00 pm
Live in Evanston and suprisingly these past two storms haven’t impacted us. Which is really remarkable, given the fact that over the past five years, we’ve had some fairly significant outages (four days in the middle of summer a few years back; another one that went more than a day). Lots of partial day outages the past few years, as well. We almost expect them whenever the weather starts to act up and are grateful when they don’t occur. Hope Comm Ed is able to finally get things back to normal in Lake County soon. Have a few coworkers who would certainly appreciate getting their power back on.

Comment by Phil Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:08 pm
9/10 for ComEd. I know many others have issues but it’s bound to happen.

Had a couple blackouts late last summer for no apparent reason, but it was back on in a timely manner and the trucks were out in full force. Calling in immediately notified me of the problem in my neighborhood with an estimate of when it would be back.

Billing has always been a breeze. No problems if I’m even a few weeks late in between jobs or something.

No real complaints here. Problems are bound to happen and in my personal experience they clean things up fast.

Comment by Matt Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:14 pm
ComEd should enter a partnership with their customers to pay for one-half of the cost of an automatic natural gas powered whole house generator for each residence. Another solution is to bury all power lines in high density areas over the next 20 years.

Comment by Cincinnatus Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:32 pm
CWLP

Personally, they have responded to my calls efficiently. And to piggy-back another comment, I can’t imagine moving and expecting to pay what I pay here. CWLP has kept rates pretty darn low in comparison to other areas.

Full Disclosure…I still hate Illinois and want to move and will when my children are grown.

Comment by PaGo Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:40 pm
No complaints with ComEd, we have underground service and the area is rather new. So we average an outage every 3 years, and usually it does not last long.

Comment by OneMan Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:43 pm
Trees are down, blame ComEd! I seem to lose power when everyone in the neighborhood has their AC on during the hottest days of the year. 98% of the time, my lights come on. I am cool with them.

Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:50 pm
Been with CWLP for close to 17 years now. I can think of about 7 times in that time frame where power was out for over a few minutes.

The worst was with the tornados where we were without power for 4 days.

Other than that, they have been steller. Power is cheap, and reliable.

Can’t be happier about them. I like someone else said dread having to ever leave Springfield for a commerical power provider. Bills will be double, and service/reliability will be half.

Comment by How Ironic Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:52 pm
As I predicted, ComEd is trying to use the blackout to justify its Smart Grid legislation.

Their claims may even be true, but I still think its a questionable p.r. move.

Now is a really bad time to be reminding folks you are seeking a rate hike.

And folks do not expect to have to pay extra to have the power restored within 24 hours.

Wisconsin experienced the exact same storm, but got much better service.

Comment by Yellow Dog Democrat Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 1:52 pm
We’re still without power in much of Waukegan, haven’t seen too many work crews. The damage here is catastrophic, looks like a hurricane swept through the town, trees and wires down almost every block, major food stores have been closed, people line up at the few fast food spots open for something to eat. It took two days before many streets blocked by live wires were opened, many Pace bus routes were forced to close.

I understand the cleanup will take weeks, if not the rest of the summer. But, it’s hard to hear reports of over 750,000 restored to power while we sit up here and wait, maybe Saturday? So, how do I rate my electric company? On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Com Ed a -15.

Comment by Wensicia Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:05 pm
YDD is right, very poor timing especially since ComEd’s “smart grid” bill is more about annual rate increases and increased profit than it is about any real “smart grid”

Its like saying, “We cost you a lot of money in wasted food, medicine and hotel stays… but now you should pay us more money, so we can do this thing called ’smart grid’ that we promise (wink wink) will make us do our job better.”

No wonder their customer rating is almost dead last.

Comment by SportShoz Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 2:21 pm
I used to have all kinds of problems with ComEd outages. After years of doubletalk, they finally admitted they needed to trim trees along a key feeder line to our community. Once the trees were cut, outages went down dramatically. Unfortunately, the tree cutting was a terrible hack job. I’ve never seen such weird shapes.

To me, those trees tell the ComEd story. They (ComEd) wait until the problem is overgrown and out of control, then announce a a grand emergency action to fix the problem, and then decimate the landscape while implementing their solution to their problem.

But, the External Affairs people are very nice and very nicely paid, with my light bills.

Comment by anon sequitor Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 3:08 pm
First ten years living in my home we had minimal outages. Recently we seem to be having more multiday outages. Two this year of over three days. I can’t sleep with my neighbor’s damn generator running 24 hours a day. You would think when the same neighborhood loses power over and over they would try to come up with a solution. What makes it worse I am the only house on the block attached to a separate line so they always have power when I lose mine. I give them a D.

Comment by Marcus Agrippa Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 3:25 pm
Burying is not always an sneer. In our neighborhood the power is out for the homes with underground service, but on for those with overhead service…
Go figure

Comment by Plutocrat03 Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 4:03 pm
As a local government official I can tell you that the customer service performance from Com Ed is abysmal. If any other business had their same level of customer service performance, they would be out of business in a matter of days. I am not referring to the latest series of storms. I am speaking about their long term performance over the last 10 years.

Comment by One of the 35 Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 4:12 pm
So far I haven’t had any outage problems with ComEd, but I’ve only been a customer for about 9 months. I can say that their customer service is pretty terrible, including their website which is incredibly buggy. I’d give them a C+. With CWLP I had some outages, but was generally pretty happy with them. Ameren, same thing.

Comment by Small Town Liberal Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 4:21 pm
Several years ago we had regular power outages. We installed an automatic standby generator. In the 3 1/2 years since we installed it,our power hasn’t failed once….in the entire neighborhood. But just as soon as it does, we are going to turn on all our lights so the neighbors can see just how prepared we are!

CWLP is doing a great job. Now, if they could just bury ll the cables and power lines for a cleaner sight.

Comment by Justice Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 4:54 pm
5 years ago Ms DuPage Dan and I started construction on an addition on our home. For a variety of reasons we decided to have our service buried. We could not get it buried initially since the old addition had not been torn down. Once the old addition was torn down it was supposed to be a simple call to Comm Ed to get them out to bury the new service. Weeks went by with no one from Comm Ed coming out. I ended up calling their service dept only to learn that the supv was on vacation. I couldn’t understand why they had no one else to schedule the work. I called corp headquarters and they claimed they couldn’t get the service dept to move either. I ended up having to use my outside voice to get them to DO THEIR JOBS!

When they finally came to the house to lay the line the installer laid the new service in such a way that it intruded into what would be our new basement. This despite the route for the new line having been spray-painted onto the ground. It was another week before Comm Ed would come out and lay a new service line in the proper position.

I am not a fan of Comm Ed.

Comment by dupage dan Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 4:58 pm
If Com Ed has a worse ranking than Ameren/CIPS I really feel for those people. Our power has goes off momentarily at least every other week as it is not unusual to see all the clocks flashing when we get home. I know of three instances in the last ten years it has been off for a minimum of one up to five days. This doesn’t include the hour or two outages. Virtually everyone in my neighborhood has bought a generator out of necessity. All Ameren can say is they need a rate increase. Frustrating

Comment by Tough Guy Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 5:17 pm
I know its late just got in years ago both the gas company and com-ed had “to do” boards when the “gangs” came in at the end of the day they could post things that neede immediate attention or things that could wait and addressed, then the utilities started outsourcing that type of work, so trees didnt get trimmed and right-of -ways went unattended. so here ya go, I’m just waiting for the utility infrastructure to start collapsing faster than they can address the needs its coming soon folks, note; Peoples Gas upgrades in Chicago….thank you to the many men and women who charge into the unknown to repair these situations !!

Comment by railrat Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 5:23 pm
Sorry, I posted my ComEd calamity a few days ago. I had a tree from a neighbor’s yard which fell on rear overhead powerlines and had a smoking tree for 4 days six feet above my garage, where the weight of the tree had pulled the lines down to. The fire department could do nothing about it until ComEd cut off the power (it took two days to start up the power, and that is when the tree began to smoke) and told us to “keep an eye on things.”

When the trucks showed up SIX DAYS LATER on a Sunday afternoon, some ComEd supervisor could be heard squawking over the work crew walky talky device that he insisted they be back in the yard by 7:00 p.m. as he was tired of paying them overtime. I, the customer, overhead this.

This latest storm had two mini-black outs (half hour or less) which considering how rotten our service is, I should be thankful for. Just a half mile south of me into Highland Park, folks and friends are on their 4th straight day without power.

My rating of ComEd after 18 calls from me, my neighbors and my police and fire departments? After coming home for 23 years and resetting clocks, VCR clocks and timers at least once a month for that time period?

The very bottom. They are no. 9,999 in my book when it comes to customer satisfaction.

And they don’t seem to care. We pay the highest or nearly the highest electrical rates in the nation and the service we get back from them is an embarrassment.

Comment by Louis G. Atsaves Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 5:26 pm
ComEd - F

So of course our lawmakers give them the rate increase they wanted.

Comment by just sayin' Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 6:21 pm
Com Ed gets a 3 rating. In our neighborhood (just on one side of the street, not the other) we had repeated power outages traced to antiquated transformers (I think they are called). Com Ed agreed they needed to be replaced but it took 4 years to get it done.

And good luck getting a response from them- phone, internet, whatever.

And yet they are always asking for more, more, more money for their lousy service!!

Comment by DuPage Dave Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 6:54 pm
–The cost cutting has crippled their ability to respond. –

I hadn’t noticed cuts in the advertising budgets or political contributions.

My neighborhood infrastructure in Oak Park got upgraded about 10 years ago after a microburst wiped it out, so we’ve been pretty solid since then as far as outages.

Meanwhile, my much wealthier friends in River Forest have been told they might get their power back on Friday.

When you’re writing checks for 50 large every year for property taxes, you expect to have power, even if one has nothing to do with the other.

It’s going to get really hot on Saturday and will be for the next week. Keep your fingers crossed.

Meanwhile, don’t blame the crews, unless you’re willing to get up in an elevated gondola in a thunder storm in the middle of the night to diagnose and fix a problem with a high voltage line.

Comment by wordslinger Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 7:25 pm
CWLP has been great except for during the twin tornadoes that went about 100 feet from the house. The outage was longer than I would have liked but managed to survive in the house to the camping gear and the gas log in the fireplace. Was actually surprised we were out of power even then given the amount of redundancy built into the CWLP distribution system. CWLP, for the most part, is an example of how government should work … especially when they let the engineers run it instead of the politicians.

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Thursday, Jul 14, 11 @ 11:39 pm