BALTIMORE — The people of Highlandtown called for answers after several random power outages, and Thursday they got some.
RELATED: Highlandtown neighborhood set to discuss power outages with BGE officials
BGE held a virtual meeting with community members to explain how these power outages happened and what they're doing to make it right.
Michael Butts, a representative for BGE said the outages were caused by underground cable faults and other electrical issues.
They presented a map with a 3-phase approach to fixing the problems.
“When all of this is said and done all of this cable will be replaced,” said Butts. “A vast majority of these outages have occurred in these sections of cable. Can’t guarantee your never going to see an outage again, this is going to go a long to improving the reliability to the community.”
Many people were looking for credits or compensation for the way the service losses impacted lives.
Ammanuel Moore with BGE said each person needs to make a claim and file an impact statement.
Moore said things like loss of groceries or time won’t be compensated.
“Where the power supply becomes an issue and a claim might be approved is if there is willful neglect on the system in terms of the way we are repairing or installing or in some cases responding to an outage,” Moore said. “In this case that’s not what the situation has presented.”
During a pandemic we are really depending on electricity.
Kids need it to go to school, a lot of adults need it to work and businesses need it to survive.
For over 100 years, DiPasquale’s Italian Marketplace has been the place to go for delicious deli sandwiches and fresh Italian groceries.
“A lot has to do with the food,” Joseph DiPasquale said. “But it’s a family owned place and we try to be friendly in the community. We definitely cater to the community and the community gives to us.”
DiPasquale said the recent rash of random power outages resets a lot of machines that need a technician to turn back on the right way.
“When the power shuts off, we get caught with our pants down when we have orders pending already. We let the people come in and pick up the orders they already placed. Of course the computers I keep forgetting about that it’s a nightmare. Even weighing an item, I have no scale.”
BGE says crews should finish the second phase of the fix this weekend.
They expect to complete the final repairs by the start of October.
