After a slew of power outages over Labor Day weekend, Cleveland City Council approved legislation for software updates for Cleveland Public Power.
Council approved legislation on Monday authorizing the city to go out for a Request for Proposal to spend up to $250,000 over two years for a professional services contract to access the software.
Citizen Pie in Ohio City was in the dark for days and had to toss out nearly $3,000 worth of food.
“Sometimes we get deliveries, and it’s like 2,000 pounds of cheese in at one time," said employee Bonn Rassavong, who was working during the outage. "We lost about a week and a half’s worth of cheese.”
The shop's co-owner Vytauras Sasnauskas said they've had at least twelve outages over the last year, costing them up to $10,000 in losses.
Sasnauskas said if food is kept at 40 degrees or hotter for longer than four hours, they have to toss it.
This legislation provides for two one-year renewal options.
According to the company's spokesperson, Paula Morrison, the diagnostic software will allow Cleveland Public Power to, "proactively monitor system performance, better monitor demands on its electrical grid and better prevent outages, reduce outage time, monitor LED street consumption and systematically identify unauthorized usage."
The software will help with monitoring in real time to better identify potential problems, such as transformers that could become overloaded with higher power usage.
“You just have to be hopeful. If not, keep complaining until it fixes," Rassavong said.
In recent months, Morrison said CPP has undertaken other improvements, like adding a second feeder line to the West Side at a cost of $6 million.
She also detailed an upcoming $18 million project that will add a transmission line, allowing CPP to deliver power to the West Side from multiple points, reducing the chances of outages.
