After today's forecasted rain, sleet and snow showers, the temperature is expected to bottom out around 32 degrees, which may feel plenty cold for a number of residents in North Baltimore (Remington, Charles Village) who received the following notice from BGE.

BGE has decided to shut off power tonight for 6 hours starting at 11PM.

I called BGE to challenge the wisdom of this policy since, not only will they be shutting off power at a time when most residents will be home, they're doing it at a time of year when many rely on electric heat to keep warm.

The representative from BGE said this was being done because of underground cabling, water caps on the water line, and proximity to power lines on 27th St. and Cresmont and Mace.

The problem I was stressing with BGE was their decision as to when to shut off power.

It would seem to me to make more sense to shut off power at 11AM:

- a time of the day when most people aren't home

- a time of the day when temperatures generally aren't at their lowest

- a time of the day when most people who would be home have somewhere else they can go for 6 hours to wait for their service to resume

When I tried to challenge BGE on this, I was told that there was nothing to be done, that this had already been decided. Decided by whom? If our private, for-profit, gas and electric supplying monopoly is making decisions about cutting residents' service, shouldn't the community be consulted as to the most opportune times to do it?

If you received a similar letter and are concerned about your power outage tonight, I suggest contacting your local city council representative and expressing that concern to them.

This is just stupid planning on the part of BGE. Stupid planning that will leave a number of residents cold and in the dark tonight.