MINUTES of the Indian Hills Homeowner's Association October 25, 2007 SUMMARY A meeting of the homeowner’s association was held on October 25, 2007 at the Community Center to hear a presentation by BGE on the reliability of the power distribution.
BUSINESS
No business was on the agenda, hence no quorum was necessary to convene a formal meeting.
BGE representatives: DaJanel Roberts and Ervin McDaniel (410) 291 3730.
Protective devices have been installed in the past few years. These protect against cascading faults due to tree branches falling on wires, breaks, opens in part of the feeder.
It was noted that the duration of an outage is recorded by the start and stop times the BGE field worker enters in the field service log. This is the time spent on the job, not the time the power was out. It can be subjective, depending on whether other incidental activities in the vicinity are included (or not) before the event is closed. So while not the actual duration of the outage, the recorded duration is still a good relative indicator of major and minor outages.
Feeder Line Improvements
Putting community power feeders underground can cost $500,000 to $3,000,000 per mile, depending on variables like ground conditions and cost to secure rights of way. Putting individual house power feeds underground average about $5,000. This covers trenching, removing the pole, installing the transformer pad. Other utilities on the distribution pole (cable, telephone) don’t share these costs. Providing better line maintenance is cheaper and provides more benefit than underground routing. Feeders along main state roads are more easily maintained than those within the community, and are generally more reliable. For new and replacement feeds, BGE is moving to an “open conductor” construction which has less horizontal arm extension to catch limbs.
Community Power Feeds
The 33 homes in Glen Eden are supplied by a feed from the Bay Hills substation. Part of the distribution line is underground, part above.
All of Indian Hills is supplied by a feed from the substation south of here at Greenbury Point. The feed runs north on the west side of Route 2. It splits into two feeds to cross the highway, one that lights up 7, 13, 19, and 25 Chautaugua and the ten homes on Bald Eagle. The other feed comes across behind 6 Chautaugua and supplies the rest of the 80-odd homes in Indian Hills.
The outage history of both feeds and their causes, for the previous 20 months (since January 2006), is shown in the table.
“Tree Limb” includes outages due to tree limbs taking out lines outside the community as well as inside Indian Hills. “Substation” includes failures of aging equipment, and due to the load gradually growing to exceed the distribution capacity as homes add hot tubs, room extensions and the like. “Ice and Snow” outages are pretty much unavoidable, but their effect is minimized by tree trimming. “Undetermined” – service returned after equipment reset; no fault found (perhaps due to small animals zapped into oblivion, could include momentary limb contact. Untrimmed limbs provide squirrels access).
Note that the totals mean on average, there’s been almost two power interruptions, sustained or transient, every month.
Discussion The homeowners discussed their experiences with power outages, their perceptions of vulnerability, and specific flaws observed in the lines. Power lines should run no closer than 10 feet from a house, can’t cross windows, must avoid metal gutters.
BGE tree trimmers don’t need authority to trim limbs within 15 feet of the lines; they have the right-of-way to access the lines. They do need homeowner’s OK if greater than six feet from the pole, or 15 feet of overhang. Homeowners should support the trimming by allowing service crews to cut branches in the yards if asked for permission. The Board will help resolve any blocked access. BGE sent letters to homeowners last week about the trimming. Tree trimming is proceeding in two phases:
The acreage cleared around 84 Lumber is near the IHCA feed and may help reduce tree limb outage.
BGE will contact concerned residents with repair, maintenance actions, tree problems, and will attend a follow-up meeting if we request it. Homeowners should alert Mr. McDaniel (or whomever is the current BGE point of contact) when dead limbs and trees threaten lines.
Homeowners are strongly urged to call the BGE service line (877 778 2222) as soon as the power goes out. As the outage continues, residents should keep calling, over and over. First of all, this alerts BGE that there’s a problem, secondly, it helps the service team localize the fault. (A fuse failure is undetectable by line monitors). A third benefit is that if service crews have a choice where to work next, they may go to the area with the most calls.
Respectfully submitted, Bill Anselm |
