Lawmakers put heat on Ameren
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By Blackwell Thomas | Friday, January 26, 2007 |
SPRINGFIELD — Their customers are getting used to paying higher energy bills, but it is Ameren executives who have been feeling the heat the past two days.
On the heels of a highly critical report from the Illinois Commerce Commission released Wednesday, Ameren executives sat before a panel of state lawmakers Thursday to explain last December’s massive power outages in their service area that left thousands in the dark.
State Rep. Bob Flider, D-Mount Zion, convened the hearings to determine how the power company can improve its preparedness and response to severe storms in the future.
Ameren President Scott Cisel was greeted with cordial smiles by the dozen House members on hand before methodically laying out his case for what caused the blackout, which lasted as long as 14 days in some areas, and why it took so long to repair downed lines.
“The results of severe storms do not necessarily show that a (electricity) distribution system is poorly designed or maintained,” he said. “Our systems are designed, built and maintained to withstand severe weather. But they cannot withstand large trees with limbs falling on the overhead lines. That is exactly what happened during the 2006 storms.”
Cisel said the company has been prudent in trimming trees, but short of cutting down all trees near power lines, there is nothing more his company can do.
“Ameren is very constrained on how much we can trim trees,” he added.
In analyzing the company’s response to the blackout, House members questioned Cisel regarding the number of lineman jobs his company has cut in the past decade. Cisel said that the company has not been eliminating workers but instead had been contracting out work.
But several of the House members, including state Rep. Patrick Verschoore, D-Milan, questioned whether these contract workers were properly trained.
The tone between Ameren executives and House members was friendly, but the tenor of the proceedings shifted when Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn addressed the panel.
“We cannot tolerate an electric company doing business in Illinois that has had four major outages since July of 2004,” Quinn said. “They blame it on nature. They blame it on the weather, but for those citizens who live in Missouri and Illinois, we do have winter every year.
“Cold and snow and ice do come to our part of the country as it does in other parts of the Midwest, and a utility company cannot constantly blame nature for its failures.”
In his 20-minute address to the panel, Quinn said that, after severe outages in Utah, the utility company there offered goodwill payments to those customers who were left without power. He then suggested that Ameren do the same in Illinois.
No official action was taken during the hearing. Rather, Flider said he thought the discussion would help to increase attention and pressure Ameren to improve its service.
“It is a concern,” he said of Ameren’s recent performance. “We have an obligation to make sure that utilities are providing reliable service. Today, we’ve talked about pending legislation with regard to reliability standards. One of the fundamental things we’ll keep looking at is whether utilities are adequately staffed, or is too much of it going to the bottom line.”
Blackwell Thomas can be reached at (217) 789-0865 or blackwell.thomas@lee.net.
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