Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Virginia Power Misstatement
Today I got my electric bill. Nothing too unusual, but it came with a newsletter called the "Customer Connection". The first story is entitled "Reliability". It says "we work hard to maintain and improve reliability". Then it goes on to say that its efforts have paid off, saying that a typical Dominion Virginia Power customer had power more than 99.9 percent of the time.
Let's see about that this past year. A storm marched forth with a sharp squall line on March 4 last year and cut the power for 8 hours. On May 12, on a windy day, a tree fell on a nearby power line, causing a 12-hour power outage. In mid-July, a severe storm with hail knocked power off for about an hour. On August 17, a hard-to-discern power outage occurred for 1/2 hour. And later that month, a car hit a utility pole that was well within the property, causing a 4 hour power outage. The total is 25.5 hours. The year had 8784 (not 8760 because it was a leap year) hours, so the power was on (8784-25.5)/8784 = 99.7% of the time. That is not over 99.9%. Where did you get your data from, Dominion? Did you single out my home somehow?
Further, even 99.9% is unacceptable. It should be 99.99%. Hours of down time for whatever reason is always unacceptable. I do not consider their power reliable unless they are up 99.99% of the time, with at most 52 minutes of power outage time per year. To me the main problem is all these aerial cables that are subject to tree strikes. I now fear any time the wind goes over 25 mph.
It's OK to set their standards, but Virginia Power should refrain from statements like "power was up over 99.9% of the time".
Let's see about that this past year. A storm marched forth with a sharp squall line on March 4 last year and cut the power for 8 hours. On May 12, on a windy day, a tree fell on a nearby power line, causing a 12-hour power outage. In mid-July, a severe storm with hail knocked power off for about an hour. On August 17, a hard-to-discern power outage occurred for 1/2 hour. And later that month, a car hit a utility pole that was well within the property, causing a 4 hour power outage. The total is 25.5 hours. The year had 8784 (not 8760 because it was a leap year) hours, so the power was on (8784-25.5)/8784 = 99.7% of the time. That is not over 99.9%. Where did you get your data from, Dominion? Did you single out my home somehow?
Further, even 99.9% is unacceptable. It should be 99.99%. Hours of down time for whatever reason is always unacceptable. I do not consider their power reliable unless they are up 99.99% of the time, with at most 52 minutes of power outage time per year. To me the main problem is all these aerial cables that are subject to tree strikes. I now fear any time the wind goes over 25 mph.
It's OK to set their standards, but Virginia Power should refrain from statements like "power was up over 99.9% of the time".
