ComEd Assistance Available to Western Springs Residents
The electricity company is offering $10 million in assistance funds for those facing disconnection.
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Friday, March 29, 2013
ComEd Assistance Available to Western Springs Residents
The electricity company is offering $10 million in assistance funds for those facing disconnection.
With the start of spring and an increase in temperatures, the end of the winter moratorium on service disconnections for residential customers has arrived. To help customers in financial hardship who may be facing disconnection, ComEd announced it has dedicated $10 million in assistance funds for the second consecutive year. These dollars are part of a five-year, $50 million commitment to help ComEd customers struggling to pay their utility bills, a result of Smart Grid law enacted in 2011. “We realize some customers fall on hard times and need assistance with paying their monthly electric bill,” said Val Jensen, senior vice president of Customers Operations, ComEd. “This is why we want to ensure customers who are in need are aware of the …
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Patch on Politics
ComEd Wants You to Pay More for Electricity You Used Last Year
The utility wants lawmakers to amend a 2011 rate-hike law to allow the utility to retroactively collect money for electricity already used.
The Illinois Senate Executive Committee unanimously approved a request by ComEd and Ameren to "clarify" a 2011 law that allowed the utilities to raise electricity rates, Illinois Public Radio reports. The clarification would allow the power companies to retroactively charge higher rates for the electricity you've already used, potentially raising up to $70 million for ComEd, according to Sun-Times Media. The 2011 law changed the formula used to determine charges. But the utilities say it didn't work as intended. They say regulators aren't letting them charge what they need. Now the companies are back, asking the legislature to pass another law, clarifying the old one. (Says) ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore: "Without it we are stalled in these…
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Friday, December 14, 2012
ComEd Grilled on Power Surge by Western Springs, Highlands Residents
Representatives from the electric company spoke at a jam-packed Western Springs Village Hall on Wednesday about the November surge that caused damage in many homes.
Representatives from electric company Commonwealth Edison went before Western Springs Village Hall on Wednesday night to answer residents’ questions about the November 27 power surge that many Western Springs and La Grange Highlands residents say caused significant damage to their homes and appliances. The hall was overflowing, with many attendees forced to stand for lack of enough chairs. Western Springs Village President Bill Rodeghier, State Representative Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs) and a representative for Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-3rd, also a Western Springs resident) were among them. ComEd engineering manager Bill Fredrick told the crowd that the surge happened when a 12,000-volt line on Edgewood Drive in La Grange Highlands …
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Roaming Gnome
10:19 am on Thursday, December 20, 2012
Surge protectors are not designed to protect against sustained over voltages. Which is what the event was not a surge. A surge by definition is a momentary event. Not like when a high voltage line is dropped onto a lower voltage line for a continuous time frame. No surge protector is designed to protect against this event. It's like expecting the levies to hold during hurricane Katrina. I hope … more ›
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Downed Power Lines Start Electrical Fire, Destroy Forest Hills Garage [VIDEO]
Arcing electricity ignited the Western Springs garage and melted its contents causing estimated $60,000 in damage; fire apparently started when dead power lines lying against the garage were re-energized.
Power lines lying against a detached Forest Hills garage, lines that the Western Springs Fire Department previously had confirmed as dead, suddenly roared to life early Thursday morning at about 12:13 a.m., spraying electrical arcs and eventually setting the garage ablaze. Village firefighters battled the blaze for about an hour and a half before ComEd was able to shut down the line just before 2:00 a.m., but not before the flames had scorched the garage interior, including a car, and caused an estimated $60,000 in damage. [See above for video and photos.] The lines appeared to have been knocked onto the garage when lightning from Wednesday night’s fierce flash thunderstorm struck a pole running behind the Bonistalli home on the 4800 block…
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Sunday, July 1, 2012
ComEd Works to Restore Power for 250,000 Customers
The utility said it had restored 96,000 customers as of 8 p.m. Sunday after a storm that featured high winds, rain and hail earlier in the day.
The following comes from a Commonwealth Edison release: More than 360 ComEd crews are working around the clock to restore power after a severe storm tore through the Chicago area, causing power outages for more than 250,000 customers. As of 8 p.m. Sunday, power has been restored to over 96,000 customers. The storm struck suddenly and violently. According to the National Weather Service, the western suburbs experienced wind gusts of 60 to 90 mph, heavy rain and pounding hail. In Addison, more than an inch of rain fell in 25 minutes. There were a total of 3,400 lightning strokes recorded, primarily in the west and south. The hardest-hit areas are in ComEd’s northern region, where the utility is working with municipal officials and local …
Joseph R. Martan
10:54 am on Monday, July 2, 2012
Doesn't this provide yet another argument in favor of DEMANDING ComEd upgrade its transmission equipment and bury its lines instead of engaging in the snake oil peddling of its "Smart Grid" system - a patently obvious scheme to goose up electric rates which our politicians approved after extensive financial lobbying by ComEd? more ›
Monday, May 7, 2012
ComEd Uses New Technology to Inform Public About Outages
An interactive map and smart phone app will convey information about outages quicker and better than ever, utility officials say.
As if experiencing a power outage is not frustrating enough, the situation intensifies when you cannot get information about it. ComEd Monday, May 7, announced two new ways in which it is using technology to communicate better and quicker with customers. The first is an interactive online outage map and, the second, a mobile application for smart phones. The interactive outage map is a color-coded map that allows customers to find information about: The outage map can be found under the Customer Service tab at comed.com or at comed.com/map. Using the map, customers can report outages and view all outages in the ComEd service territory. Color-coded icons indicate the number of customers affected by each incident. The map allows customers to…
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
ComEd Seeks Rate Hike
The utility will use the new revenues to pay for "smart-grid" costs.
Commonwealth Edison Co. has filed to boost its electricity rates by nearly a dollar per month next year to finance local power-grid improvements it's making under the 2011 “smart grid” law that permitted the utility to hike its charges annually per a set formula, Crain's Chicago Business is reporting. ComEd's rate on an average residential bill will climb 97 cents from today's rates, Crain's reported from an April 30 news release. The Illinois Commerce Commission will review the request under provisions in the new law that sharply curtail regulators' leeway to reject the utility's costs and profit margins. ComEd's delivery rates actually will decline from June though December of 2012 because its authorized return under the law is less than…
Monday, March 26, 2012
ComEd: Coming Improvements Will Cut Western Springs Outages
The electric company is pledging that their new "smart grid" improvements, the first of which are currently being installed, will reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts in the Village.
With the rollout of the first stages of a massive $2.6 billion plan to modernize their entire Chicagoland grid, electric company Commonwealth Edison is promising that new improvements beginning as soon as this month will decrease the frequency and duration of power outages in Western Springs. The first step that ComEd is taking for Western Springs is the installation of two “distribution automation devices” in McCook on lines pertinent to the Village grid, an improvement scheduled for the first quarter of 2012. Working in tandem with a modernized system, DADs will automatically reroute power through new lines when an outage is sensed. “Not only can you significantly shorten the length of potential interruptions, but you can also prevent …
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Kevin Harris
11:05 am on Monday, March 26, 2012
Totally agree! It would be comical if it wasn't so sad. Here we have a company that charged outrageous rates for service that went out with some regularity. Then they argue that if you pay us more money we will provide you with better service, i.e., the service we should have been providing a paying customer in the first place. Slick advertising and political contributions ensured that the … more ›
Tom S
9:42 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Under the Smart Grid law passed in 2011, ComEd committed to spend $2.6 billion over 10 years to modernize the electric grid in Northern Illinois. The ICC's interpretation of the law reduced funding to complete the modernization program. As a result, ComEd faced a reduction in funding of nearly $100 million per year in 2014 and beyond. Without the additional funding, ComEd stated it could not … more ›