Progress with Edison

April 10, 2010

Met onsite with Edison representatives earlier this month to discuss transformer vault explosions. Edison was much more receptive than in the past and revealed their records of the 3 vault events we had last year: one high voltage, two line voltage.

Representatives explained how the Village has long been powered from a more volatile commercial supply circuit (also supplying local defense contractors) than most residential areas. They agreed to shift our power source to a traditional all-residential circuit, with the expectation of a reduced number of voltage drops and spikes than before, putting less stress on our onsite transformers.

Supplying some history, Edison reps also explained that the original developer of the Village preferred underground transformers, which are less visible but more prone to problems due to water intrusion. Also, since the transformers are deep in narrow vaults, they are more difficult to inspect, and when they do malfunction, any flare-up is concentrated.

We invited Edison to evaluate an above ground solution, but only at their own cost. They agreed to evaluate, but mentioned they had offered this in the past, but above-ground transformers had been rejected by a previous Board. So there is progress and we have finally established a productive dialog. – D. White