The Crestwood Citizens Association (CCA) held its regular bimonthly meeting at Grace Church, 4300 Sixteenth Street, NW, on January 16, 2007 at 7:00 PM. A quorum was present.

Also present were: Thomas Graham, President of PEPCO Region, Bill Gausman, Vice President of Asset Management, Chester Knapp, Engineer, Nathan McElroy, Staff Forester, and Kimberly Johnson, Assistant to Mr. Graham (PEPCO representatives). Elizabeth Noel, Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC) and Dr. Joseph Kwude, Public Service Commission (PSC). Two Area Neighborhood Commissioners attended: Ron Bland (4C) and Jim Jones (4A08).

Pre-briefing.   Prior to the start of the meeting, Tom Graham spoke with the CCA core Pepco working group and expressed his commitment to continue to work with the community to resolve the PEPCO outages and service reliability issues. Mr. Graham stated that PEPCO was spending $1.8-$2.0 million on fixing feeder 15197 (this is the electrical line that provides service to most of Crestwood). He stressed that this effort would not be 100% fix for the outages but would improve electrical service reliability significantly. Mr. Graham stated that he has several of his experts with him for this meeting, including Chet Knapp his reliability expert, Nathan McElroy his tree expert, and Kimberly Johnson his assistant.

The core group asked several questions:

Will the new sub stations help cut down on equipment failures in Crestwood? No, the substations will provide service for growth in DC. The Crestwood equipment failures are related to feeder 15197; PEPCO has taken aggressive steps to improve that feeder by replacing cables. PEPCO needs a year (including a storm season) to see if PEPCO took the right steps to improve service.

Will PEPCO provide CCA with information going forward on outages? Probably not. PEPCO does report major outages to PSC; a major outage is one that impacts a certain number of customers for a certain amount of time. PEPCO has added ACRs (fuses) to reduce the number of customers impacted during an outage. The ACRs help to isolate the outage and service for other customers is temporarily re-routed to reduce the number of customers who lose power while PEPCO makes repairs.

PEPCO Outages and Service Reliability. The vast majority of the meeting consisted of a presentation by PEPCO representatives as well as questions from the audience.

Crestwood is one of 130 neighborhoods in DC. Feeder line 15197 provides electrical service to most of Crestwood; this particular feeder line is the worst performing in DC. This feeder line serves 1,960 customers; DC has 200,000 customers.

Mr. Graham stated that PEPCO is committed to improving service for Crestwood and he apologized for the poor service to date. Mr. Graham was joined at this meeting by his subject matter experts (SME) to discuss the work that PEPCO performed in 2005, evaluation of service in 2006, and subsequent aggressive measures being taken by PEPCO to improve reliability. PEPCO is committed to spend $1.8 - $2.0 million to improve reliability; however, he cannot guarantee a particular service level. Feeder line 15197 has been the most challenging for PEPCO due to damage from animals and trees, and equipment failures. Mr. Graham feels comfortable that the measures being taken PEPCO at this time are appropriate.

Ms. Noel of OPC stated that OPC represents the people. Crestwood is entitled to receive safe, adequate, and reliable utility services. OPC is listening to Crestwood and PEPCO to determine the nature of the problem, why the problem is occurring, how and when it can be corrected. OPC will ensure accountability for the issue in a timely manner. She stated that PSC has the legal authority to “hold PEPCO’s feet to the fire” so that PEPCO provides reliable service to Crestwood. OPC takes issues to PSC. PSC has oversight of PEPCO’s performance. OPC has attended this meeting to “listen” to the people.

Mr. Gausman, PEPCO asset management SME stated that PEPCO is committed to performing considerable work to improve reliability. He is focusing on the “distribution system” (wires on the streets). The circuits that feed electricity to Crestwood start at the Ft. Slocum sub station. Each circuit provides electricity to 1,500-2,200 customers. Feeder line 15197 is 12 miles long of which eight miles are overhead and the remaining are underground. Trees cause most of the problems with electricity service in Crestwood. Crestwood’s trees are tall and mature; storms cause large branches to come down and interrupt service. PEPCO identifies trees in poor health and works with DC to remove portions or entire trees. DC owns the trees and must approve tree work before PEPCO is granted the authority to trim or remove trees. PEPCO’s relationship with the DC arborist has improved significantly. DC has become more willing to change the species of trees it plants under wires; it has been planting shorter trees that do not grow higher than the overhead lines. And, DC is doing a better job of planting trees in a manner that increases the likelihood the trees will survive.

In 2005, feeder line 15197 was identified as a priority feeder. At that time PEPCO evaluated the circuit to determine that the circuit complied with current standards. PEPCO also improved feeder line 15197’s configuration by replacing some equipment and hardware. In 2006, PEPCO monitored the service level and found that the improvements it had expected were not realized. Feeder line 15197 was re-identified as a priority circuit.

One CCA member mentioned outages of 15 seconds, which were not included on PEPCO’s outage report. These 15-second outages cause gas heaters to turn off; the homeowner must then “relight” the pilot. Mr. Gausman stated that PEPCO’s outage report is for sustained outages, which are defined as lasting five minutes or longer. Momentary outages (less than five minutes) are not on the repot. The work that PEPCO is currently doing should have a significant impact on reducing momentary outages. The system is designed to go out in order to allow momentary outages and the system tries to come back on line three times. An example is when a tree branch touches an overhead wire. The contact causes a momentary outage; the system attempts to restart, if the tree branch no longer touches the wire, the system will restart. The new cables that PEPCO is installing overhead should reduce the momentary outages. The old cables are “bare” and the new cables are insulated with a protective coating.

Mr. Gausman discussed outages compared to sags. Sags are evident when lights in the home dim. A blown fuse somewhere along the circuit might cause this.

A CCA member talked about home alarm systems. Power failures cause some alarm systems to activate. DC police are alerted and arrive to investigate the alarm activation. Because DC police are unaware that the alarm is due to a momentary outage, they have difficulty determining as the cause of the alarm.

Mr. Gausman said that newer alarm systems and clocks have batteries in them that eliminate the problems caused by momentary outages.

PEPCO has been inspecting underground cables through the manholes and is in the process of replacing all underground cables on feeder line 15197 (work should be completed within three weeks). Once all underground cables are replaced, this will reduce outages due to cable failures.

Service interruption occurs when trees touch the “bare wire” cables; even a small touch will cause an interruption. The new, insulated wire will protect wire from tree touches and eliminate many of the circuit breaks at the sub station. Mr. Gausman warned that humans and animals coming in contact with either the newly installed cables or the bare wires would be electrocuted; neither cable provides injury protection.

When trees bring down the new wire to the ground, Crestwood will still suffer outages.

The new aluminum cable has equivalent capacity as the copper wire; both offer more capacity than Crestwood currently needs or uses. The new cable can carry 100 amps, which is sufficient to meet Crestwood’s maximum load demand conditions; therefore, capacity is not a concern. PEPCO refers to the new cables as “tree wire” because branches that merely touch the wire will not cause outages.

PEPCO is installing “aerial cable” on the “main trunk” out of the substation. This cable is fully insulated against going out of service even when a tree branch touches or sits on it. The reason for the installation is the large number of canopy trees at the beginning of the circuit. Canopy trees drop branches and cause outages. Crestwood suffers from the same type of canopy trees. PEPCO has been working with DC to plant trees with shorter maximum heights and has been trimming branches as trees grow so that the canopy is not above the power lines. However, the older trees cannot be trimmed and trained to grow around the power lines, the only solution is to either remove the tree or “top” the tree; DC is not in favor of these solutions unless there is imminent peril. PEPCO outages due to trees are 25-30% in the system; the tree outages in Crestwood are much higher at about 40%.

Underground cables have caused many of the equipment outages. PEPCO is replacing the underground cable; this is expected to significantly reduce outages due to equipment. The reason PEPCO will not replace Crestwood’s overhead cables with underground cables is the cost. Repairs for overhead cables cost less than $1.0 million versus $10 million to go underground. Even including the cost of repairs due to storm damage does not justify going underground. Additionally, moving the overhead cables underground will not solve the outage problems. PEPCO is reconfiguring and putting in more devices so that outages can be isolated and instead of 1,960 customers losing power, only a handful of customers will lose power. Underground work causes other problems such as torn up streets and sidewalks and may even require significant costs to homeowners who will have to change and move their connections to the outside source. The total all in cost to fix the overhead wires is significantly less than to move the service underground.

If the overhead repairs, additional equipment, and replacement of bare wire with tree wire in canopy tree areas does not work, then PEPCO would have to move the system underground. PEPCO does work with other utility companies to reduce the amount of times that streets are torn up.

Tree maintenance is performed every two years. PECO works with DC to identify the amount of trimming that can be done. When wires are close to the trunk of a tree, PEPCO cannot trim the tree; the only solutions are either topping or removing the tree. Asplund Tree experts do the tree work for PEPCO.

PEPCO is installing automatic circuit reclosures (ACRs), which help to reduce the number of customers who lose service. ACRs work like a mini substation. One ACR was installed in Crestwood in 2005 or early 2006. It will be relocated in Crestwood while PEPCO continues its existing work. PEPCO may install more poles in Crestwood. PEPCO did re-route some of its service through areas without trees.

A CCA member asked why Crestwood has outages when 16th Street and Colorado Avenue do not? PEPCO responded that these areas are on different circuits. PEPCO believes the new cables will be sufficient to greatly reduce outages in Crestwood.

PEPCO is working to get service to Crestwood that stays in service. PEPCO now has move ability to isolate outages and use parallel circuits to temporarily provide services when outages occur. In the future, these temporary changes will be remotely operated; currently, these must be manually redirected. PEPCO will look at Taylor Street again to see if it can make some interconnections; Crestwood does not have any at this time.

A new switch as been installed near Mayor Fenty’s house. This switch is currently manual but will be automated or motorized. PEPCO expects to complete the work by the third quarter of 2007. Currently, PEPCO is rebuilding the system in Crestwood to today’s standards.” Bare wire is still standard for areas without trees. However, tree wires or PACs are the new standard for highly treed areas.

Crestwood residents need to call the central PEPCO system at 202-833-7500 to report outages. They may also contact Kimberly Johnson at 202-872-2477. Kimberly will work with PEPCO engineers to identify outages and fix them. However, residents must still contact the central PEPCO system as well.

PEPCO defined “joint failure” as an underground failure. Approximately, 55% of Crestwood failures are equipment, animals, or joint failures. The remaining 45% failures are from trees and storms. PEPCO is trying to lower the total number and duration of failures in Crestwood. PEPCO is looking for significant improvement in service to Crestwood once its currently work is completed by the third quarter in 2007.

PEPCO attempts to assess the cause of each failure but some times the cause remains unknown. For example, a tree branch may touch a wire and cause an outage but if the branch is not touching the wire when PEPCO responds to the outage, it may be unable to assess the cause; this condition results in the cause being reported as “unknown.”

A CCA member asked what Crestwood’s expectations should be for our new standard of service. PEPCO stated that it reports to the PSC the frequency and duration of outages. PEPCO is required to operate its system within a certain band determined as a four-year average of service. PEPCO looks for continuous improvements in its service; therefore, its objective is to reduce its four-year average of outages. If the four-year average of outages improves, then the new goal is always an improvement over the prior year’s goal. The calculation of the four-year average excludes “extreme storms.”

Squirrel damage is defined as a squirrel coming in contact with a metal can and a pole or wire at the same time. Such contact causes a short or outage. PEPCO is installing animal guards on all of the metal cans. Squirrels can stretch pretty far. PEPCO cannot insulate everything but it is installing all of the primary sources it can. If what PEPCO is doing now does not work, then it will have to reconfigure the system and move primary problem areas underground. However, PEPCO says that the current work is expected to improve service and resolve Crestwood’s problems. Moving parts of the system underground is the last resort.

Crestwood expressed its desire to be routinely informed by PEPCO about outages. PEPCO said it would update CCA on the work being done and is trying to work out access to information on outages. PEPCO will try to keep CCA informed.

OPC said it would work with CCA to set up a liaison to keep CCA informed as well. The two Area Neighborhood Commissions at the meeting (Jim Jones 4A08 and Ron Bland 4C) agreed to establish a liaison with PEPCO and PSC.

CCA can work on a document with OPC to petion the PSC on behalf of Crestwood.

The PSC person to talk with is Dr. Joseph Nwude, Director of Technical and Regional Issues, 202-626-5156. Dr. Nwude receives all outages information from PEPCO. Dr. Nwudetracks PEPCO’s performance.

There are 750 feeder lines in PEPCO’s system. The 2% that perform the worst each year (15 in total) are identified and corrective action is agreed to by PEPCO and PSC. The corrective action is monitored for a year. Dr. Newday expects that when the work in done on feeder line 15197, this line should not appear on the 2% list of worst performers.

PSC came to the meeting tonight to hear about other household appliance issues.

Mr. Graham stated that Kimberly Johnson would give CCA a monthly update on the PEPCO’s work progress.