It took less than a minute for ON Semiconductor to lose more than $35,000 worth of product.
In fact, during the three-month period from June to August, officials at the East Greenwich company estimate they lost almost $2 million worth of revenue as a result of what is called a “blip” in the electricity supply.
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A blip is a minor change in the voltage of an electronic current. And while it may be only a minor irritation for residential customers, it is becoming a costly problem for the state’s manufacturers.
“Companies deserve to have power at the steady rate that they pay for,” said Roger Buck, president of TEC-RI, which represents 85 of the state’s largest energy users. “What we are talking about is something that has a significant impact and causes huge losses in the manufacturing process.”
Robert G. Seega, a spokesperson for Narragansett Electric, disagreed.
“It’s not an overwhelming problem that we think that we have,” he said. “These are companies that are very sensitive to any change in the voltage.”
But according to Buck, it’s exactly because more companies are becoming sensitive, technology-based entities that the problem has grown in recent years.
“This has been a problem since the day we had electricity,” he said. “But we have had more problems than usual in the last year. If Rhode Island is serious about attracting high technology companies they need to make sure that these companies can function in a way that won’t cost them losses.”
Jim Kimball, a former electrical engineer with On Semiconductor who recently conducted an energy study for the company, said in a two-month period there were more than 14 interruptions to the company’s service, some disabling machines that take almost eight hours to come back on line.
“A majority of these disturbances are microseconds, but that is all it takes for equipment to go down,” he said. “In the time waiting for those machines to come back up, we lose the revenue of idle employees, production that could have gone out is lost, and the physical inventory needs to be scrapped.”
In response to what it considers a growing problem, On Semiconductor officials, in conjunction with TEC-RI, are circulating a petition that acknowledges a dissatisfaction with the quality of power transmitted and distributed by Narragansett Electric. The goal is to get state officials, as well as its primary supplier of electricity to listen. Already 19 companies have signed.
“We aren’t blaming any one group,” Buck said. “Obviously because we have 19 people that have signed this throughout the state, it’s a big problem.”
Terry Mercer, a spokesperson for the Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission, isn’t sure. In fact, he said, a letter the PUC received from On Semiconductor shows that the company experienced 99.7 percent reliable service in the three month period they reference.
“The PUC needs to look into whether or not .3 percent interruption is a problem,” he said. “We need to determine if this constitutes a significant problem, or if it’s the minority.”
In fact, the electric company is held to a certain set of standards set by the PUC in 1996 as part of the Utilities Restructuring Act. But according to Buck those standards apply more to residential customers than local businesses.
“These standards are based on outages that are more than a minute, and that’s not what we are talking about,” he said. “We need to review these standards and make them more realistic for companies. We need to change these performance standards so they deal with the fluctuations in power. We need to provide standards that are more realistic for manufacturers and will enable those manufacturers to improve their own standards.”
This isn’t a problem unique to Rhode Island.
Narragansett Electric’s parent company, National Grid, is working with its Massachusetts subsidiary, Mass. Electric on similar issues in that state.
“This is not anything that is totally unique to Rhode Island,” Seega said. “I am not sure that we haven’t looked at possible solutions to the problem. We are always looking at new technologies and try to make any investment we can to make our service stronger.”
According to Seega, there are a variety of things that can interrupt service, ranging from a fallen tree limb to a power line being struck by a car. He said there are some things that companies can do to protect themselves from these interruptions.
“There are devices that can control these blips and smooth out the power voltage,” he said. “Some customers can also have a second feeder cable installed on their property.”
Buck said members of TEC-Rhode Island, as well as company officials who have signed the petition, are expected to testify at upcoming hearings before the Senate Corporations Committee.
