ST. CHARLES – The $1.5 million installation of the ninth ComEd line feeding electricity to the city should help reduce power outages, a city official said.

The new ComEd feed line is coming from Geneva and could be energized in about a week to increase the city's capacity, said Glynn Amburgey, electric and communications manager for St. Charles.

Work crews Wednesday morning ran a series of tests on the new line, looking for shorts and voids.

Customers on the average experience about 85 minutes of electrical power outage per year, Amburgey said.

If one of the eight existing ComEd feeds to the city goes down, he said, that means one-eighth of customers lose power.

The 2nd Ward and 3rd Ward experienced a number of outages over the past few year.

"I'm not anticipated any more problems," said Betsy Penny, 2nd Ward alderman.
"We'll have to wait until this summer. We'll know if everything is working during times of heavy use."

Peak-use hours are hot summer days when people are running their air-conditioners.

Of the 60 utilities in Illinois, Amburgey said, St. Charles residents are paying the eighth-lowest rate for electricity, about 8 cents a kilowatt hour.

Amburgey said that St. Charles Municipal Electric Utility has entered a new era.

"We're were expanding the past 40 years, but now we've shifted gears and focusing on maintenance," Amburgey said.

The St. Charles budget for its electric utility is $40 million. The cost of the new power line has been "absorbed" into the budget over the past four years.

The utility began in 1892 as a coal furnace in a red-brick building on Main Street that was used to generate power for downtown streetlights.