My city can't count on reliable power. Outages during heat wave just latest letdown.
In 2022, the City of Glendale became the first municipality in the state to file a case with the Public Service Commission on behalf of its residents due to excessive power outages in the city.
Why? On one of the hottest days of the year in late August, the temperature hit 101. Power was out in part of Glendale, and the outage extended into Thiensville. It was the 11th outage that affects somewhere in Glendale in the last month alone. Only two of those outages can be blamed on violent storm systems.
Sadly, this level of outages is the norm in Glendale. Since 2020, parts of the city have been without power 2% of the time. Sometimes the power goes out for 30 seconds or a few minutes; and sometimes it stays out for hours or days. Two percent of each year is cumulatively more than seven days a year without electricity.
WE Energies has failed to adequately invest in power grid
The problem with our weak power grid rests solely at the feet of We Energies. For decades, they have failed to adequately invest in infrastructure upgrades. In Europe, regions the size of Milwaukee all have their electrical lines buried. Many areas in the U.S. have moved to bury lines, as well. As we deal with climate change that is producing more frequent and more violent storms, burying the power lines is the only way to stop repeated outages.
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At approximately $1 million per mile of buried cable, it can be costly. However, We Energies has the resources to do it. They regularly go to the PSC and ask for rate increases. Their rate cases typically project a profitability margin of at least 10%. That money is not going into infrastructure improvements. It is going to shareholders and executive salaries. The Edison Electric Institute shows WEC (the parent company of We Energies) as a solid investment for investors who trade in utility stocks. Meanwhile, we customers are paying more, while our power grid ages and crumbles.
We Energies, in its most recent rate case, pledged an infrastructure upgrade over the next five years that will total $700 million. Some of that will go to burying some lines in a few areas. The problem is they should be spending that much every year to fix the negligence of the past few decades. They should be gradually moving all of our power lines underground.
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Utilities a public good, reliability should be top priority
We Energies is not like other companies. They are not manufacturing widgets and selling them in the free market. They produce power and serve the public good. They are also a monopoly. We can’t choose which energy provider we want. As a regulated utility, their first obligation should be top-notch infrastructure that provides reliable power.
I was asked recently by an attorney for We Energies “What does Glendale want out of this?” My response was simple: “I want you to invest in reliable infrastructure so that the power does not go out every few days in my city.” If it takes us going to the Public Service Commission to make that happen, that is what Glendale leaders are ready and willing to do.
Bryan Kennedy is mayor of the City of Glendale.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Glendale can't trust WE Energies for reliable power. Summer proved it
