Ernest J. Willson, Belle Mead
To the editor:
Failure of major pieces of the electric distribution system as a result of the recent snow storm has caused many people in our region a great deal of suffering. Some families here in New Jersey have been without electricity for six days and more. When I heard on the radio today that the local utilities expected to take this long to return all service I was enraged.
Maintenance staffing has been cut over about a twenty year period by the privatized utilities in an attempt to increase profits. During the same period the number of consumers and load has increased.
The utilities have maintained that they could reduce staffing because they depend on additional maintenance crews from adjacent utilities to supplement their own reduced number of work crews.
The strategy will work if a single utility (or a small group of utilities) have a local outage. Help is available from adjacent utilities. Unfortunately when there is a major event the adjacent utilities are dealing with their own alligators and cannot supply the crews. It is self-evident that the current system is inadequate.
It appears that with the current level of repair staffing, the electric utility companies simply cannot deal with large events. This situation is simply unacceptable. The Board of Public Utilities here in NJ has let this situation develop over the years, and the governor has stated that he considers the utility response to the current situation acceptable. I question whether or not he gets it. I suggest effected individuals write the governor about this. Perhaps if enough people write then something will be done.
Ernest J. Willson
Belle Mead
