Buffalo Grove frustrated over ComEd response
Nearly a year after summer power outages frustrated thousands of residents, Buffalo Grove officials say they are still waiting for ComEd to provide a satisfactory response.
Village Trustee Jeffrey Berman this week vented over ComEd’s denial of claims by residents affected last year, as well as the utility’s terse explanation for the denial.
Berman told trustees that the village received a response of about 10 sentences explaining that ComEd denied all 89 claims made by Buffalo Grove residents who say they suffered damages as a result of last year’s outages.
“No explanation as to the nature of the claims. No explanation as to the magnitude of the claims. No explanation for why they were denied,” Berman said Monday.
In response, ComEd issued a statement Friday that while it understands people’s frustration after storms that caused 2.5 million service interruptions, because severe storms and the damage caused are beyond its control, the utility generally can’t reimburse customers for related losses.
ComEd has appeared twice before the village board since last year’s outages, offering its explanation for why they occurred and plans to remedy the problems that caused them. Trustees were, at best, bemused by what they saw as a lack of substantive action.
“We made it very clear to ComEd at that time that this village, this village board did not view the outages as acceptable,” Berman said. “We did not view ComEd’s response to the outages as acceptable. And we certainly didn’t find ComEd’s excuses acceptable.”
Berman, who blames the outages on ComEd’s upkeep of its infrastructure, asked fellow trustees this week to direct village staff to draft a response to ComEd stating they believes the residents are owed compensation.
His request met with mild resistance from Trustee Lester Ottenheimer, who said he didn’t disagree with what Berman said but doubts such a statement would persuade ComEd.
“It seems they just don’t care,” he said.
The board ultimately concurred with Berman’s request, and Village Manager Dane Bragg said he would consult with Village Attorney William Raysa on options in dealing with the Illinois Commerce Commission and ComEd, as well as put together a draft letter.
ComEd’s Friday statement said that its reliability and restoration of service times both stack up well compared with other utilities and that it is adding technology to the system that will result in “the improved service and stronger response to storms that our customers want and deserve.”