Electrical Improvements Made in Doylestown

PECO has finished repairing and replacing faulty equipment in Doylestown Borough, but that doesn’t mean the energy company is finished working in the municipality, company representatives said Monday.

Theodore Dorand, PECO’s external affairs manager for Bucks County, told the borough’s public works committee and approximately a dozen residents and borough council members that the company plans to correct circuit load imbalances beginning in mid January. He said at certain peak demand times of the year, some circuits are carrying a higher than capacity load. That's something they should be doing only in emergency situations.

“We’re looking at ways to address that,” Dorand said. “We’re very confident we’ve taken a major step in improving the reliability with what we already did.”

PECO began looking at power problems in the borough after , beginning last January. Some were related to problems with underground lines and equipment, while others were related to storms and above-ground lines.

“We heard very loud and clear from you. You wanted to see some changes with regard to reliability,” Dorand said.

PECO surveyed its equipment and developed a list of improvements, breaking the work up into six parts and scheduling six power outages, said Bob Crognale, PECO’s manager of engineering for Bucks and Montgomery counties. The six planned outages, for the work conducted this fall, typically lasted for eight hours between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. to minimize interruptions for businesses and residents.

“All the work we identified through our inspections has been completed,” he said.

The design for the next project should be finished in mid January and is likely to include the installation of new electrical cable in some borough streets, Crognale said. The work should be completed by mid-to-late February, he said.

Dorand said business owners and borough officials did not want the work done during the holiday shopping season. “You made it clear you wanted minimal business interruption,” he said.

Installing new cable will mean digging up streets near the curb, and planning some additional power outages to connect buildings to the new cable. The outages should be shorter this time, typically four hours or less, Dorand said.

That’s because PECO installed 25 boxes in borough sidewalks to allow company workers easy access to electrical lines. Crognale likened the boxes to “mini manholes.” Doran said the boxes provide access to supply lines along the street, which PECO previously would have needed to dig up to reach the lines.

Cognale said the outages also would affect fewer businesses or residents at a time.

A representative from M.O.M.’s Maxwell’s on Main told PECO the overnight outages worked wonderfully. He said he wanted to make sure the future planned outages went as smoothly.

Public Works Committee Member and Council President Det Ansinn said he appreciated PECO’s sensitivity to business owners.

Charles Kwiatkowski, of the , mentioned off-and-on drops in electrical service levels at the facility on Lower State Road. Borough Council member Noni West spoke about residents losing appliances during a power surge when the electricity went back on after the power outage caused by the October 29 snowstorm.

Dorand said he would look into both issues.