Darrell Sapp, Post-Gazette Aerial lineman Ken Black uses binoculars to inspect transmission towers near Forest Grove Road in Robinson for Duquesne Light. Click photo for larger image. On the Net For more information on Duquesne Light, go to www.duquesnelight.com. For more information on the PUC, go to www.puc.state.pa.us.

Duquesne Light is spending more than $500 million to upgrade its delivery of electricity in Allegheny and Beaver counties.

It's about time, say some of its more than 585,000 residential and commercial customers.

Although most customers realize that high winds, heavy snow and ice storms can cause power outages, they can be less understanding when equipment failures knock out their lights for varying lengths of time.

But wrist-thick cables short out, garbage can-sized transformers atop utility poles overheat, and connectors that look like oversized springs stop working.

Duquesne Light had 3,563 power outages that lasted five minutes or longer last year, according to a report it filed last month with the state Public Utility Commission. That's an average of 10 outages a day. It also was 270 more outages than it had in 2004.

Not included in the annual reports are outages lasting fewer than five minutes. Most are those annoying split-second dips in power that cause digital clocks and VCRs to flash on and off with anything but the correct time.

But state regulators say that as annoying as those outages may be, Duquesne Light provides highly reliable service.

Based on data Duquesne Light supplied to the PUC for a report on electric service reliability in Pennsylvania in 2004, the PUC determined that the company's "overall performance continues to be better than the standard level of reliability."

The PUC said Duquesne Light's service reliability had been "fairly consistent" across its approximately 800 square miles of service territory, thanks to what the company described as its "effective outage-restoration process" that allows it to restore power quickly to large numbers of customers.

Excluded from the report, with the PUC's approval, a standard practice, were three major storms that interrupted electric service for at least 10 percent of its customers.

They included outages caused by the torrential rains, high winds and widespread flooding generated by Tropical Storm Ivan that affected 143,801 customers in September 2004 and severe thunderstorms in May and June of that year that affected 142,000 and 101,000 customers, respectively.

In an effort to reduce the number of equipment failures, do more preventive maintenance and improve its overall performance, Duquesne Light President and Chief Executive Officer Morgan O'Brien said last fall that the company would spend more than $500 million through 2007 to replace aging circuits and equipment and to improve power capacity.

Huge system

It's the largest improvement investment the company has made since it got out of the power-generation business in 2000, and it's a formidable task.

The company has 527 substations, 3,040 high-voltage transmission towers, 5,000 manholes, more than 5,000 miles of underground distribution and transmission cables, 7,000 miles of overhead wires, 103,000 transformers and 300,000 poles.

Mr. O'Brien, an accountant who became the top officer in September 2001 after holding senior executive positions in corporate development and finance, made the announcement on the North Side, where the company broke ground for a training facility and a storage and dispatch service center for the Downtown area and nearby neighborhoods.

"I'm here to talk about a significant investment in the Pittsburgh region over the next several years that will make needed improvements ... that will enable us to deliver power safely and reliably to our customers' homes and businesses," Mr. O'Brien said at the time.

"Events like the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and the massive Northeast Blackout of 2003 bring into sharp focus the importance of reliable infrastructure."

Mr. O'Brien said the company would hire 150 new full-time employees and 120 contractors to do the work. The larger projects include:

Improving power capacity to serve the growing electricity needs at hospitals and universities in the Oakland area.

Refurbishing the aging underground systems that power sections of Downtown and the growing North Shore commercial district.

Adding backup circuits to feed power to the Downtown network. If one fails, another can carry the load.

Finishing the conversion of older 4,000-volt distribution circuits to 23,000-volt circuits that are more reliable, thanks to newer electronic monitoring equipment. This usually involves new poles, new transformers and new switches.

Upgrading transmission lines that will improve the flow of electricity in the eastern suburbs -- from Cheswick on the Allegheny River to McKeesport on the Monongahela River. It also will help balance the power load throughout Allegheny and Beaver counties.

Upgrading underground lines and other related equipment in older suburban housing plans, some of which were installed in the 1960s. This has been completed in Aleppo, Plum and Ross and is under way in Moon and O'Hara.

The utility hopes the improvements will reduce the number of power outages, which occur for a variety of reasons.

Last year, equipment failure caused 960 of the outages; storms, 919; overloads, 579; falling trees or branches, 392; vehicles, 163; tree growth and vegetation contact, 116.

In 2004, when it had 3,293 outages, storms caused 908 of them. Equipment failure caused 862 outages; falling trees or branches, 530; tree growth and vegetation 178; overloads, 151; and vehicles, 136.

There were 3,301 outages in 2003 and equipment failure was the chief culprit -- 998. Storms caused 880 outages; falling trees or branches, 578; overloads, 197; tree growth and vegetation, 182; and vehicles 142.

Seeks rate increase

To help pay for the more than $200 million of already completed improvements and the remainder of the work, Duquesne Light asked the state Public Utility Commission on April 7 to approve a $162.7 million rate increase.

If approved, it would cost the average residential customer another $144 per year for electricity -- a 19 percent increase. The PUC said it's the first transmission and distribution rate increase Duquesne Light has filed since 1987.

But, if approved, it won't be the first rate increase some Duquesne Light customers have experienced in the last 19 years.

In January 2005, the PUC approved the company's request for a 7 percent rate increase for customers who decided to keep Duquesne Light as their supplier of electricity. It meant the average residential customer, who uses about 600 kilowatt hours a month, saw their bills increase from $59.13 to $63.87.

Residential customers did get a break in their monthly bills in 2002, when the company lowered its rates by 20 percent after it got out of the power-generation business.

To give customers an opportunity to respond to the company's current rate-hike request, the PUC has scheduled three public hearings.

They will be held at 7 p.m. July 12 at the Holiday Inn, 7195 Eastwood Road, Beaver Falls; 10 a.m. July 13 at the Shaler Villa Volunteer Fire Department, 960 Saxonburg Boulevard, Shaler; and 2 p.m. July 13 at the Castle Shannon Fire Department, 3600 Library Road.

Meantime, while new equipment is being installed above and below ground, the company is using helicopters and infrared equipment as part of its preventive maintenance program.

The infrared equipment detects hot spots in equipment that appears to be operating properly. Helicopters are used to inspect -- and even repair -- problems detected during annual aerial surveys of more than 200 miles of transmission lines and the towers that support them.

After the pilot brings the helicopter close to each of the company's 3,040 towers and their high-voltage lines, a two-member crew uses binoculars to examine the hardware, insulators, shield wires and the condition of the towers.

If a repair is necessary and can be done from a work platform mounted on the skids of the helicopter, one of the crew members, wearing special clothing, sits on the edge of the platform and does it. It is frightening and fascinating work. They use tools powered by a generator fastened to the other end of the platform to balance their weight.

The sight of a helicopter hovering near the towers, especially when a crew member is doing repair work, often generates a number of calls from nearby residents to their police departments.

The police, alerted in advance about the flights, are asked by Duquesne Light to assure the residents that what they saw was just routine maintenance.

It just isn't done in a routine way.