Representative Troy Addresses First Energy and the PUCO at Briefing Regarding the August 6th Storm
COLUMBUS – State Rep. Daniel Troy (D-Willowick) was a member of the audience at Wednesday’s Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) briefing on the August 6th storms. At the end of the briefing, Rep. Troy was given the opportunity to speak about grid modernization and concerns that he heard from his constituents.
“First of all, one of the things that I heard a lot from my constituents was that when the initial messaging went out, residents were hearing that they were probably not going to get people’s power back on until the 14th (this was from a storm that happened on the 6th). As a result of that messaging, people were up in arms and very irate about the fact that it was going to be six, or seven, or eight days before their power would be restored. That really put a lot of my residents in a near panic mode. I know there has been some discussion about that from questioning possessed to the Commission members. Whatever we can do to refine or modify that public information process would certainly be appreciated,” remarked Rep. Troy.
Rep. Troy then spoke about the distribution of energy:
“As a member of the House Public Utilities Committee and a participant in the joint hearings we had with Pennsylvania legislators, there seemed to be considerable concentration on generation, generation, generation. Statements like ‘we want to make sure that we don’t end up like Texas. How do we make sure we generate enough power’? Very honestly, the problems I’ve witnessed and am hearing from my constituents over the years is not so much about the capacity of available generated power, but rather the ability to transmit and distribute that power ensuring that it flows with as few interruptions as possible to our homes and businesses.
We should do whatever we can going forward to improve the grid performance. Obviously, we are subject to a lot of challenging weather conditions in Northeast Ohio. We are seeing climate change causing more extreme weather incidents. I think we really need to start concentrating a lot more on the transmission and distribution of our energy and the transmission of the power and maybe a little bit less on how we generate that power.”
Finally, Rep. Troy asked a question directed at the President of First Energy Ohio:
“I was in the City of Willoughby Hills in my district, and I was talking to a restoration crew out of North Carolina just after they had restrung some overhead lines. I asked them where they had to go in the city for their next fix, but they said they couldn’t leave until First Energy resent power to that area, and First Energy was overwhelmed in performing that function. They said that they were having difficulty in making contact with First Energy to have that done. I understand that power transmission to storm damaged areas was shut off for purposes of life safety, but once repairs were made, the delay in resending it certainly caused a lot of downtime for repair crews rather than allowing them to move on to the next fix. Is there an advanced technology that First Energy can utilize or is in the process of developing that can minimize those occurrences?”
EDITOR’S NOTE: Here is a photo of Rep. Troy (top row, second from the right) addressing the PUCO and FirstEnergy.