BGE CEO Suggests 'Selectively' Burying Power Lines

The chief executive officer of BGE told the state’s utilities regulator on Thursday that the only way to shorten the length of major power outages would be to have a “very different delivery system,” the Baltimore Sun reports.

BGE CEO Kenneth W. DeFontes Jr. was speaking at a Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) hearing, scheduled after more than 760,000 Maryland residents lost power in the wake of the late-June derecho storm. 

At the hearing, which is standard procedure after “major outage events,” DeFontes reportedly told regulators that BGE would need to bury some power lines–and more aggressively trim trees–to prevent more long-term outages.

After , customers who lost power were in the dark for an average of 38 hours. For some people, .

“A part of the solution has to be having less damage to repair," the Sun reported DeFontes telling commissioners. “Undergrounding selectively has to be part of that solution.”

In response to criticisms levied by several county executives and the Baltimore City mayor that until days after the storm hit, DeFontes said the company was trying to protect their customers’ privacy.

The Sun reports that he said BGE did not know “with certainty how carefully it would be protected.”