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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday added to the chorus of those seeking answers from AEP on last week’s widespread power outages.
The governor issued a statement supporting a review of the outages by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.
AEP power outages:AEP Ohio intentionally shut off power to some Greater Columbus neighborhoods. Here’s why
The outages left more than 230,000 Ohioans without electricity on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, while temperatures climbed into the 90s. Among those without power were about 170,000 Columbus-area customers who were cut off of power by AEP because of fears that power lines were becoming overheated.
DeWine calls for answers on AEP Ohio power outages
DeWine said PUCO should examine several aspects of the outages including:
• “What steps are Ohio’s utilities taking to ensure that the significant disruption Ohioans experienced last week does not occur again?”
• “Why certain central Ohio neighborhoods lost power and others did not?”
• “Did utilities do enough to communicate to their customers ahead of planned power shut offs to protect the grid?”
Did AEP target poor neighborhoods?:Did AEP outages disproportionately impact poor city neighborhoods? Here’s what data shows
AEP did not immediately respond to DeWine’s questions Tuesday.
AEP shut off power to some Greater Columbus neighborhoods. Ohioans want answers
Utility officials said last week they cut off power as a last-choice necessity after signs that power lines were becoming overloaded and in danger of failing, following storm damage to transmission lines on the north and southwest parts of the Columbus area.
DeWine’s comments echo widespread questions last week about the outages, many from those wondering why certain neighborhoods were impacted and why AEP did not give any heads up.
AEP Ohio on widespread power outages:AEP says ‘very, very unusual occurrence’ causing outages— this is not the new normal
AEP said overloaded lines dictated which neighborhoods were shut off, and that events happened too quickly to warn customers and law.
AEP continued to wrestle with isolated outages on Tuesday, as temperatures again climbed back into the 90s.
jweiker@dispatch.com
@JimWeiker
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