Representatives from Detroit Edison said the company has spent a lot of money, and plans to spend even more, in the Orion Township area to improve power reliability since several outages left the township in the dark in 2003.
Mike Palchesko, DTE’s regional manager and coordinator for government affairs, told the township board of trustees on Feb. 22 that the company had done a lot of corrections since representatives were before the board last January.
‘Since that time we’ve done a lot of things,? he added. ‘And we’ve met with several homeowner’s associations.?
Ed Halash, manager of the engineering group for DTE, said they would be continuing their efforts, and that a substantial amount of money had already gone into improving Orion’s power.
‘We did a number of things in 2004, and we have even more planned for 2005,? he said. ‘There were a lot of problems in 2003.?
Halash said that 90 percent of what DTE representatives talked about doing last January had been completed.
‘We’ve done a lot of line clearance, which is cutting trees,? he said. ‘Cutting trees is a major factor in improving reliability. We do it by substation area.?
The Baldwin area substation and Joslyn substation area have been line cleared, and the Pontiac substation, which feeds into some parts of Orion, was done in 2003.
‘We do line clearance every four to five years,? Halash said. ‘We also do pull top maintenance, which is actually patrolling the circuit on foot and looking for problems, every five to six years.?
At that time, DTE takes care of ‘floating conductors,? which have come off of insulators mounted on the poles.
‘A number of specific projects have been completed, including reconductoring, which is replacing sections of wire to increase capacity and reliability,? said Halash. ‘We also do load transfers, to make the circuit as small as possible.?
Reconductoring is being done on Baldwin at a cost of $632,000, and is 50 percent completed, he said.
Additional circuits were also installed on Baldwin.
‘We’re spending quite a lot of money on that circuit,? Halash said. ‘We have $518,000 in reconductoring that is to be completed this year.?
DTE has also done work on Coats and Joslyn.
‘Reconductoring and other work are to be done on Joslyn this year, at a cost of $242,000,? said Halash.
‘The township has also had capacity added, and the Gidding substation was completed, which is not in the township but will offer support. That was a $3.9 million project.
‘We’ve done a lot of work, and plan to do a lot more,? he said. ‘When (the township) brings concerns to us, we’ll try to address them as soon as we can.?
Halash said increased development in the township could affect power.
‘Increased loads are a challenge for us,? he added. ‘So is this area having a lot of lakes and trees.?
Trustee John Steimel asked Halash if DTE was able to know about development that was coming, and to plan for it.
‘We have lots of development coming in the southwest area of the township,? he said. ‘I don’t know if DTE considers or knows about development when they do their planning.?
Halash said DTE looked at area roads every year.
‘We make adjustments to the loads we see, based on development,? he said. ‘We get information from driving the area, and also from our marketing group.
‘Generally, we can keep on top of it,? Halash said.
Palchesko said 1-800-477-4747 is still the best way to get in contact with DTE regarding power problems, but that people that had access to a computer elsewhere during an outage could contact them at www.mydteenergy.com.
‘Even if you feel it’s an area-wide outage, we need everyone to call,? he said.