Wallingford utility to buy new meters

As published in the Record Journal Wednesday January 9, 2013

By Russell Blair
Record-Journal staff
rblair@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2225

WALLINGFORD - The Electric Division received a bid waiver from the Town Council Tuesday night so it can buy $57,000 worth of new meters for its three substations.

“These meters are the ones that are used by several power entities to register and monitor the flow of electric energy from the grid into our system,” said Public Utilities Director George Adair.

In a letter to Adair, Electric Division General Manager Richard Hendershot said the new meters are becoming common across the state and it is important Wallingford have the same equipment as neighboring towns. “At this time, CL&P and all of the other CMEEC-participating municipal electric systems are in the process of replacing their meters ... or are planning to do so in their next budget cycle,” he wrote. “These meters have become the de facto standard ... in this region.”

Republican Councilor Craig Fishbein asked if the Electric Division had investigated meters produced by other companies that may cost less. Adair said it had not, but he doesn’t believe the $6,366.57 price tag for each of the nine meters is out of line.

Democratic Councilor Jason Zandri said that, in future bid waiver requests, he’d like to see quotes from other manufacturers.

Mayor William W. Dickinson Jr. said the Electric Division’s request was based on standardization of equipment and working with a reliable manufacturer rather than finding the absolute lowest price.

“Our system has to fit in with others,” he said. “I’m not sure it would be appropriate on a subject like this for us to develop information about the pluses or minuses of other projects. The real issue is we need to standardize. Price is second.”

Adair said he would work with the Purchasing Department to see if CL&P or other companies had any interest in purchasing the old meters.

In other business at Tuesday’s brief meeting, the Town Council accepted two donations: $250 from resident Alice Souza to the Veterans’ Service Office to purchase gift cards for needy Wallingford veterans and their families and $3,500 from chemical company Evonik Industries to the police, fire, and health departments as a thank-you for their preparation and action during Hurricane Sandy.

“We hope this helps to keep everything running fine,” said Peter Stein, manager of Evonik’s South Cherry Street plant.

Keeping posted, post-Sandy, in Wallingford

I am going to do a recap of what I have for news from all the sources as I have them.

Some of this data is from prior posts of mine and a bulk load of the information is from the Record Journal which has adapted quite well in driving real-time, local information for Wallingford.

So here we go:

https://twitter.com/SalMenzo
Dr. Sal Menzo‏@SalMenzo

All Wallingford Public Schools are open 10/31 except for Sheehan High School. Sheehan High School will be closed 10/31 and 11/1. #wpschools

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Portion of roof blown off Sheehan High School in storm

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ

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HURRICANE SANDY - Electric Division - System Restoration
http://jasonzandri.blogspot.com/2012/10/hurricane-sandy-electric-division.html

http://www.town.wallingford.ct.us/News/newsView.asp?newsID=40968208

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Wallingford Electric Division working on power outages; 3,200 customers or 13 percent

http://www.myrecordjournal.com/wallingford/article_d129ebd6-2296-11e2-9496-0019bb2963f4.html 

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ

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WALLINGFORD and CONNECTICUT; Outages by the numbers (as I have them at about 3:00PM 10/30/2012)

http://jasonzandri.blogspot.com/2012/10/wallingford-and-connecticut-outages-by.html 

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Keeping up to date:

I do the best I can keeping my blog up to date at Jason Zandri Wallingford Town Councilor but this is just me and a singular effort that happens as I get the information and as I have the time to post it.

I would recommend MyRecordJournal.com as they have the professional staff doing the digging.

From the social media side of things there are two Facebook groups I would recommend staying plugged into:

Concerned Parents Wallingford CT Board of Educ. Budget for the school related stuff (goes beyond the budget these days but that is how it was originally formed).

Wallingford CT Community Forum for town-wide general stuff.

WALLINGFORD and CONNECTICUT; Outages by the numbers (as I have them at about 3:00PM 10/30/2012)

Total CL&P Customers Served: 1,240,246

Total CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 451,107

% of CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 36%

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Total UI Customers Served: 320,150

Total UI Customers Reported Affected: 142,761

% of UI Customers Reported Affected: 44.59%

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Per the Record Journal article that I have cross posted at Wallingford Electric Division working on power outages; 3,200 customers or 13 percent

At the height of outages Monday night, 3,200 customers or 13 percent of the town was without power, but as of 6 a.m. today that number had lowered to 1,270 -- about 5 percent, according to Public Utilities Director George Adair.

Adair said he anticipates that by this afternoon the outage rate will be down to 400 customers and that by midnight Wednesday nearly all customers will be restored.

HURRICANE SANDY - Electric Division - System Restoration

As originally posted via the Town of Wallingford website

Wallingford Electric Division (WED)

Press Release 8:00 AM October 30, 2012

Hurricane Sandy - Wallingford Electric Division (WED) System Restoration

The WED’s line restoration forces, along with crews from the WED’s overhead line contractor and tree contractor, continue work to restore power to our customers. Our efforts today are focused on repairing damage to the WED’s distribution lines in order to provide power to the greatest number of customers as quickly as possible. Once the WED system backbone is fully functional our forces will address the reconnection of individual customer services. Safety remains our primary concern and we will continue to address any hazardous conditions.

We estimate that at the peak of the storm damage last night approximately 3,200, or 13% of the WED’s customers were without power. As of this morning approximately 1,270, or 5% of our customers are without service. We expect that by 5:00 this afternoon we will have reduced the number of customers without service to approximately 400. Weather permitting we are estimating that power will be restored to all customers by midnight tomorrow, October 31. Due to the variety of problems that may affect individual customers’ service wires we are unable to provide a precise time at this point for restoration of service to a given customer.

At this point in the restoration process it is important that all customers who are without power determine whether there is damage to the service connection to their home or business. If any customer-owned facilities are damaged these facilities must be repaired by a licensed electrician before the WED can safely restore power. WED crews can only work on WED equipment. Customers who have questions regarding which components of their electrical service are their responsibility should contact the WED Customer Service Group at (203) 265-5055 or (203) 294-2020. Also, please see the STORM OUTAGES page on the Town’s website at www.wallingfordelectric.com for details regarding overhead facilities responsibilities and for other storm restoration information.

As our crews work to repair services to customers’ homes and businesses they will be addressing a number of cases where service lines are down, but the customers still have power. Our personnel will evaluate the condition of these services and in cases where the customers’ facilities are intact they will re-attach the service wires and customers will not experience an interruption. However, in cases where the customers’ facilities are damaged our crews will disconnect service and will re-connect service only after the customers’ facilities are repaired.

We also ask our customers who have emergency generators to use these devices properly in order to keep our linemen safe as they work to restore power. Please do not connect your home generator directly to your home or business’s wiring. The generator should be connected through an approved cut-off switch that will automatically disconnect the home or business from the power grid when the generator is being used. This work must be done by a licensed electrician.

We thank our customers for their understanding as we work to restore power to our community.

Wallingford Electric Division working on power outages; 3,200 customers or 13 percent

As published online at MyRecordJournal.com

By Laurie Rich Salerno
Record-Journal staff
lsalerno@record-journal.com
(203) 317-2235
Twitter:@LaurieSalernoRJ

WALLINGFORD - At the height of outages Monday night, 3,200 customers or 13 percent of the town was without power, but as of 6 a.m. today that number had lowered to 1,270 -- about 5 percent, according to Public Utilities Director George Adair.

"We feel very fortunate," Adair said of the storm's damage relative to that of the state's shoreline. "We have adequate forces to address what's here."

Adair said he anticipates that by this afternoon the outage rate will be down to 400 customers and that by midnight Wednesday nearly all customers will be restored.

Beyond that, there may be some individual property owners with damaged equipment that cannot be reconnected in that time frame, and may take longer.

The peak outage rate was less than that of each of last year's major storms, with 5,000 outages reported during Hurricane Irene, and 4,000 in the October nor'easter.

On Monday night, Adair said outages were not confined to one area, but were spread throughout town.

"The wind was sporadic and varied tremendously by location. It was just here and there," Adair said.

Chimney Hill Road sustained some of the greatest damage, Adair said, with several large trees down. Line and tree crews will be working today on that section of town.

Monday night Town Hall and the Fire Department in the town center lost power, but were brought up that night.

Adair said his crews -- 6 of the town's regular line crews, three out-of-town line crews, and 6 tree crews from a contractor -- focused more on safety Monday night than restoration, dealing with downed wires. Staff also worked to isolate damages that took down large swaths of customers to bring others back on.

Two crews stayed on overnight, and three more pre-ordered out-of-town crews are expected to arrive Tuesday. The division will not be asking for any mutual aid crews, Adair said.

For customers who haven't yet reported an outage, they should call 203-294-2020 during business hours and 203-265-5055 after hours. Those who can access the internet can look at wallingfordelectric.com for more information on their service.

Outages by the numbers (as I have them at 11:15AM 10/30/2012)

Total CL&P Customers Served: 1,240,246

Total CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 476,380

% of CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 38%

Total UI Customers Served: 320,150

Total UI Customers Reported Affected: 151,407

% of UI Customers Reported Affected: 47.29%

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The count that I have for Wallingford (second hand) was around 4,000 customers out of power at the height of the storm but because of the second hand nature there is no way to know the totals for sure until the Wallingford Electric Division reports out formally.

I have been reading online via Wallingford CT Community Forum that some folks have been coming online so we might be reducing the numbers.

As I can find out more I’ll follow up; I am not going to place calls myself to the Wallingford Electric Division and tie up a phone line with a question that doesn’t need a detailed answer right now

Outages by the numbers (as I have them at 12:15AM 10/30/2012)

This will be my last update before I head off to bed; the wind is still blowing and these number are very likely to go up some more.

---

Total CL&P Customers Served: 1,240,246

Total CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 494,013

% of CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 39%

Total UI Customers Served: 320,150

Total UI Customers Reported Affected: 143,251

% of UI Customers Reported Affected: 44.74%

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The counts I have for Wallingford (second hand) were between 2,500 and 3,500 customers out of power but because of the second hand nature there is no way to know the totals for sure until the Wallingford Electric Division reports out formally.

Their main job right now is to keep their crews safe and working as they are able, in an effort to restore the power and that’s what I am sure they’ll be doing overnight and into the morning.

Outages by the numbers (as I have them at 9:45PM 10/29/2012)

Total CL&P Customers Served: 1,240,246

Total CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 475,839

% of CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 38%

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Total UI Customers Served: 320,150

Total UI Customers Reported Affected: 119,310

% of UI Customers Reported Affected: 37.27%

 

Not sure what the Wallingford numbers look like as they do not have an online report system but in order for them to be at the same percentage (about 37%) there would need to be about 9,000 customers out of the 24,000 serviced down. I doubt it was that many but we'll see

Wallingford Electric is living up to its reputation of being the best utility provider on Planet Earth

Total CL&P Customers Served: 1,240,246
Total CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 185,730
% of CL&P Customers Reported Affected: 14%
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Total UI Customers Served: 320,150
Total UI Customers Reported Affected: 10,218
% of UI Customers Reported Affected: 3.19%
---
Total Wallingford Electric Customers Served: about 24,000
Total Wallingford Electric Customers Reported Affected: around 50
% of Wallingford Electric Customers Reported Affected: <1%

(As of 5:30PM 10/29/2012)

Following up regarding Scrapping light poles

There was a story in the Wednesday October 24th edition of the Record Journal titled Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea? which I have cross posted to my Wallingford Politico blog.

I started the follow up yesterday with my “MY TAKE - Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea?” post and it seems there’s more to discuss.

I followed up this morning again with Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo by phone to formally let him know that Public Utilities Director George Adair indicated to me that he is scrapping all the fixtures working or not. As he indicated to me and to the Record Journal:

“We (the Wallingford Electric Division) don’t consider them suitable. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) do not want to perpetuate the use of them. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) consider them truly to be scrap.”

I then asked Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo should that assessment, that the ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value, been made by the Public Utilities Director or by the town’s Purchasing Agent.

He indicated that normally as part of his duties as the Purchasing Agent that he would otherwise handle “surplus property disposition” whether the decision be to recycle the materials or to try to sell them. He also indicated that to find out any further, specific details around the present situation that I should follow up with Mayor Dickinson.

I placed a call to Mayor Dickinson and he pretty much concurred with Public Utilities Director George Adair that the ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value.

I countered asking, “perhaps no value to us as we did not have any desire to use them anywhere in town (and whether we could or not is in dispute; they do function but they are difficult to maintain) but beyond that, how could we automatically assume that no one anywhere couldn’t?

While I didn’t use this example in my conversation with the Mayor, I have sold many of my old computers after I was finished with them. They were no longer of any use to me as I had reached a point of doing more with them than those systems could handle. Having said that, for someone that wanted to use them for just email and some word processing, those “no value to me” as a high, power user, systems had value to those users and I often could resell an $800.00 system for $150.00 to $200.00.

So I am still following up.

To me, I do not understand how Wallingford reached a decision that these ornamental fixtures being taken down were of no value because the person that normally handles this work, the town Purchasing Agent, did not perform their responsibility as it was not requested of him.

I do not know how the Public Utilities Director reached his decision and based on what practice and whether or nor decisions like this were done in the past.

At this point I need more information to understand why this occurred the way it did and I will need to continue to ask and follow up.

I expect more to come. Stay tuned.

MY TAKE - Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea?

There was a story in the Wednesday October 24th edition of the Record Journal titled Scrapping light poles: Is it such a bright idea? which I have cross posted to my Wallingford Politico blog.

I have followed up on this because I feel there may be some miscommunication or a misunderstanding regarding these fixtures; perhaps mine, perhaps others’ understanding, but some clarification is needed.

So to begin with let’s look at the fixtures. I do not disagree with Public Utilities Director George Adair’s assessment of the fixtures – they are very old, they are of non-standard design and as such (regarding both age and design), more difficult to continue to use and maintain. Replacing them is the right thing to do as a part of the natural progression and upkeep program.

What I would say however is they might be of use elsewhere in Wallingford. I understand Public Utilities Director George Adair’s position that “We (the Wallingford Electric Division) don’t consider them suitable. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) do not want to perpetuate the use of them. We (the Wallingford Electric Division) consider them truly to be scrap.”

These lights, I believe, belong to the Town of Wallingford, as they were purchased with funds we provided to the Wallingford Electric Division as part of their budget and in the end, the Town of Wallingford owns the Wallingford Electric Division.

If a light being taken down is truly broken and otherwise unusable I understand the desire to recycle / scrap it.

Having said that, if the fixture is working, the Town of Wallingford may wish to deploy it elsewhere and save $3,000.00 for brand new units in an area that could leverage them. As Town Councilor Fishbein keenly pointed out – we are presently creating a “temporary” parking area at the Wooding Caplan site; isn’t it logical to re-use some of those fixtures there even if just temporarily rather than spending for brand new lighting fixtures? If we need ten of them there that saves $30,000.00.

Also, I believe the purview of getting rid of WORKING fixtures falls to the Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo. One of that department’s responsibilities as outlined at http://www.town.wallingford.ct.us/Content/Purchasing.asp is to be responsible for “surplus property disposition”

I called Purchasing Agent Sal Amadeo today to let him know that I spoke with Public Utilities Director George Adair and that Mr. Adair indicated to me that he is scrapping all the fixtures working or not. I believe that Mr. Adair is executing his responsibly the way he feels he should be (without malice) but I feel that these light fixtures have more than scrap metal value to the Town of Wallingford and as the owners of the fixtures I believe the Town of Wallingford should either re-use them suitably or try to sell them to another entity that might want them.

Ten cents on the dollar selling them to an entity that wants them is better than pennies on the dollar as scrap metal.

I’ll let you know what I find out regarding my calls into Town Hall in the AM. I have to follow up with new calls as I missed getting in touch with people at the end of the day while my cell service was down in the tunnels under New York City on the train ride home at 4:50PM.

As we all know, it’s not like I can follow up by email and get an answer early in the AM; that would be way too efficient.

Wallingford Electric - How to report a failed street light

http://www.town.wallingford.ct.us/images/customer-files/report_failed_street_light.pdf

Wallingford Electric - How to report a failed street light.

We pay a flat rate for the lights whether they are on or off; we might as well get the illumination we are paying for.

WALLINGFORD - Hurricane Recovery - Electric Division - Updated Information

As posted on the Town of Wallingford website as of 2PM 8/30:

The Wallingford Electric Division (WED) continues its efforts to restore power to all of its customers. The WED system sustained substantial damage from Hurricane Irene, with power lines down in a number of locations.

Safety remains our primary concern and our first priority has been to secure all downed wires and hazardous sites. In addition, beginning yesterday, we deployed our line crews and Engineering personnel to perform damage assessment and to begin making system repairs. The assessment phase is nearly complete. Restoration work began Sunday afternoon and is ongoing.

The first priority in the restoration process is to repair the distribution feeders that make up our system backbone. This approach enables us to provide power to the greatest number of customers in the most efficient manner. As we get the primary system conductors back in service our crews will begin repairing damaged service wires to customers. This process will continue after the completion of system backbone repairs until all customers are connected.

The WED provides electrical service to the Town of Wallingford and to the Northford section of the Town of North Branford. We estimate that approximately 9,500 WED customers were without power immediately following Irene. Since that time, we have restored power to approximately 8,500 of these customers.

Based on our assessment of the work remaining to be done, we anticipate that there will be less than 500 customers without electric service by the end of today, Tuesday, August 30. Due to the variety of problems that may affect individual customers’ service wires, we are unable to provide a precise time frame at this point for restoration of service to all customers.

The WED has called upon outside resources to supplement its regular work force in order to restore service in the shortest time feasible.

The work force engaged in the field with the restoration effort:

• 7 WED line crews

• 6 line crews from Thirau, LLC, the WED’s line emergency line restoration contractor (3 crews are on site and 2 crews are in-bound).

• Line crews from neighboring municipal electric systems, through the WED’s Mutual Aid Agreement with the Northeast Public Power Association

• 2 from Chicopee MA Municipal Light

• 1 from South Hadley MA Electric Light Dept.

• 1 from Westfield Gas and electric Light Dept.

• 3 tree clearing crews from Asplundh Tree Expert Company

We ask our customers to remember that they are responsible for certain components of the facilities to which the WED delivers service. If any customer-owned facilities are damaged due to a storm or accident these facilities must be repaired by a licensed electrician before the WED can safely restore power. WED crews can only work on WED equipment.

Customers who have questions regarding which components of their electrical service are their responsibility should contact the WED Customer Service Group at 203-265-5055 or 203-294-2020.

To aid in the restoration of power, the WED has prepared a helpful diagram, entitled, What You Need to Know About Your Electric Service Connection.

Customers who use or plan to use a portable electric generator should follow basic safety guidelines detailed in the WED Home Generator Safety Checklist.