Buffalo Grove reports progress with ComEd improvements

In the wake of recent criticisms from Buffalo Grove officials over the summer’s rash of outages, ComEd is working to make infrastructure improvements at some of the most heavily hit parts of town, Village Manager Dane Bragg said.

Village officials have remained in close contact with the utility since a ComEd representative appeared at a village board meeting in August to address complaints raised by trustees and residents.

The village also has worked closely with the Northwest Municipal Conference in drafting recommendations for ComEd that will be unveiled at a news conference Tuesday in Chicago.

ComEd already has addressed one area of concern raised by residents of the Woodlands of Fiore and Rolling Hills subdivisions, officials said. Residents of those neighborhoods — which have been beset by power outages — feared possible negative impacts from improvements to the Aptakisic Road substation.

But Bragg said ComEd told the village neither subdivision is tied into the substation, and the utility plans other work to improve reliability for those subdivisions.

In a Sept. 23 memo, Deputy Village Manager Ghida Neukirch wrote that ComEd “would be agreeable to neighborhood meetings to discuss specific pocket issues or concerns regarding the ComEd infrastructure or communication.”

The memo also details some planned ComEd improvements, including doubling the capacity at its call center by adding 1,000 phone lines.

The Woodlands of Fiore suffered four outages in 2011, two related to lightning and two after tree limbs fell on power lines. ComEd is planning lightning protection, tree trimming along Route 22 and installing a type of mini circuit breaker to create a separation along the line so if one area is impacted by a power outage, it won’t spread to the entire subdivision, according to Neukirch’s memo.

ComEd also plans to install a lightning protection system in Rolling Hills, as well as targeted tree trimming along Aptakisic Road.

In addition, for the Old Oak and White Pine subdivisions, ComEd plans to replace the underground cable north of Old Oak and reconduct the lines north of Golfview Terrace.

Also, ComEd plans to replace underground cable on the north side of Deerfield Parkway between Barclay Road and Busch Parkway.