This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Politics & Government

Customers, Officials Bash BGE for Power Outages

Public commentary on BGE's performance after the June 29 derecho storm was mostly negative.

About 22 people from around Maryland criticized Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.'s (BGE) performance after the June 29 derecho storm at a public meeting in Annapolis on Monday night.

David Deutsch, Bowie city manager, said 85 percent of 21,000 residents were without power.

"The lack of information from BGE following the derecho was frustrating—not just for our residents, but for critical city infrastructure like pump stations," Deutsch said.

Find out what's happening in Bowiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

There was a drain on public safety resources as major roads had to be re-routed for four days, he added.

"A lack of a sense of urgency with wires down was very frustrating," Deutsch said.

Find out what's happening in Bowiewith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Janice Brogdan, a Bowie resident who lives in the Graystone community, spoke about her experience.

"I've lived at same address for 12 years, and I cannot count the number of times I have lost power," she said. "If there is a slight breeze, we lose power. We even lose power when it is a bright sunny day with no wind."

Like many others, she expressed frustration when calling BGE to report her outage.

"Several times, they stated they didn’t even know my power was out," Brogdan said.

One year, Brogdan said she lost power for five days during the winter.

"Each time we lose power, we are always on the tail end of the customers to have power restored," she said.

The two-hour meeting was the third of eight scheduled by Maryland's Public Services Commission—the regulating body for utility companies in the state. The meetings are part of the commission's investigation into how well utility companies worked to restore power after the derecho.

The lone voice in support of the utility company came from Davidsonville resident Erin Minich.

"I don’t think there is anyone really to blame expect Mother Nature," Minich said. "I personally feel that maybe BGE needs to be cut some slack on this specific storm. I know my popularity just went down big in this room."

BGE spokesman Rob Gould sat toward the back of the room listening to the comments. He said the complaints are in line with what the company has already heard.

Gould said the installation of will help BGE provide better information to local governments and customers because his company will be able to ping each meter to see if a house has power. 

One of the repeated complaints by commenters was frustration over a lack of knowledge about when power would be restored. Gould said after Tropical Storm Irene, BGE customers reported they would prefer worst-case scenario timelines rather than a series of changing estimates.

"It's almost like surgery," Gould said. "It looks like it will take us 'X' long, but until we get in and open up the patient, we're really not going to be able to tell you. It could go longer."

In June, a destroyed transformer near Baltimore took the company about four days to repair—well beyond initial estimates.

Gould also blamed modern technology saying it created an expectation that information should always be available immediately. The smart meters will improve communication times, but Gould said there will always be a certain amount of lag between the time a disaster hits, and the time information becomes available.

"The gap between expectations and the reality of restoration continues to widen," Gouild said. "As that gap continues to widen, frustrations will continue to grow."

See more:

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?