http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/comed21.html

Link

New ComEd site provides information on outages

December 21, 1999

BY LUCIO GUERRERO STAFF REPORTER

Communities can now gauge Commonwealth Edison's performance in an instant, thanks to a new Web site the utility has produced that pinpoints the location and duration of all outages.

While the site has been garnering widespread support from municipal leaders, it's also a boon to consumers who many times are left in the dark when an outage occurs.

The password-protected Internet site gives municipalities real-time, 24-hour access to the company--enabling towns to map exactly where outages occur, when they began and how long they lasted.

"A huge complaint that we get from businesses and residents is that they don't get enough information from ComEd when an outage occurs," said Jonathan Goldman, director of policy and government affairs for the Citizens Utility Board. "We are definitely in favor of any steps taken by the company to make information more readily available."

The site also gives residents another place to turn in an outage.

"When people have an outage, they want to know whether ComEd is aware of the problem and what is being done. (The new site) lets us give residents some answers," said Rolling Meadows City Manager Bill Barlow, whose town ranked near the bottom of ComEd's reliability scale with about 225 outages last year.

ComEd spokeswoman Adrienne Levatino said the new site improves on a former site by allowing for real-time access and providing more precise information on outages.

The idea for the enhanced Web site, dubbed E-Outage, originated with Skokie officials after they experienced trouble in one of the village's northwest neighborhoods.

"It was probably out of frustration that we went to ComEd (with the idea for a new Web site)," said Nori Van Elzen, who sits on an emergency crisis management team in the northern suburb. "It was frustrating for us because we weren't able to get an idea of how extensive the problem was without going out and driving around."

In the short time that the site has been up, Skokie has used the site to track a number of outages.

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 22, 1999

Answers

...just in time...

http://www.msnbc.com/local/WMAQ/38102.asp

Link

Hundreds of people were caught in the dark Tuesday when a power outage hit the Museum of Science and Industry

Deep freeze leads to cold woes by Amy Jacobson CHICAGO  An electrical power outage Tuesday afternoon forced the closing of the Museum of Science and Industry.

ComEd officials say the power failure affected about 1,000 customers in the South Sides Hyde Park neighborhood, including two of the largest customers  the University of Chicago and the museum. Museum security personnel say they had trouble getting all of the visitors out of the darkened museum because some of them were trapped behind electrically-operated safety doors. There also were problems getting the visitors cars out of the museums new underground garage because it, too, was affected by the outage. Officials said three ComEd lines were down from 54th to 59th and Columbia to Cottage Grove. ComEd crews restored the power about an hour later. There is no word yet on whether the museum will seek financial compensation from ComEd.

STAYING WARM The temperatures are so frigid they are in the dangerous zone, and Chicagoans are doing what they can to stay warm. But its important to remember to do it safely. Here are some common sense tips from the Chicago Fire Department:

Never use a home oven as a heating device Never use an extension cord with a space heater; it increases the risk of fire Make sure smoke and carbon monoxide detectors are working properly

If you or someone you know needs assistance in this cold weather, call the citys helpline at 311. Operators can guide callers to the shelter closest to them. Mayor Daley is urging people to check up on their neighbors, parents and the elderly to make sure they are warm and have adequa

-- Homer Beanfang (Bats@inbellfry.com), December 22, 1999.

...The site also gives residents another place to turn in an outage.

"When people have an outage, they want to know whether ComEd is aware of the problem and what is being done. (The new site) lets us give residents some answers..."

OTOH, if you're in an area that's having an outage... How does one power up a PC to log on to their web site to report it.....? (I know, I know. Laptops and batteries and all that. But most PC users...)

-- I'm Here, I'm There (I'm Everywhere@so.beware), December 22, 1999.

pretty much every residential customer of ComEd knows that they are supposed to use a phone to CALL ComEd and report that their home is without power.

no way these people are going to go ONLINE to report an outage.

most of the neighbors around me don't even bother to call ComEd when there IS an outage anyways. They either all have cordless phones that don't work when the power is out, or they just assume < /i> that "ComEd knows" or that "someone" has already called.

What these boneheads don't realize is that a single call does not generate an alert from ComEd. There is a threshold (the number is unknown to me) of calls that must be received from a certain area before ComEd acts.

People are always surprised when I tell them the only local feedback loop is themselves. ComEd only monitors power through SCADA to the substations.

-- plonk! (realaddress@hotmail.com), December 22, 1999.

Italics off.

Well, they could hire/buy generators, if ComEd had left them any. See earlier thread.

-- Servant (public_service@yahoo.com), December 23, 1999.