Representatives of Ameren Illinois Utilities held an open house at 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at the Stone Creek Church in Urbana to address service reliability issues.

Ameren is an electric and gas utility that serves 2.4 million electric, and nearly one million natural gas cutomers in a 64,000 square mile area of Illinois and Missouri. Several power outages have affected Champaign-Urbana and Danville residents in recent years, including three major outages affecting about 3,700 people. Dave Starwalt, managing supervisor of operations, said that, on average, Ameren takes care of the outages in one and a half to two and a half hours. However, the most recent outage on Aug. 16-caused by a falling tree branch at the substation on Philo Road in Urbana- lasted almost six hours. James McGavock, an Urbana resident, said that he went to the open house to find out why his home had experienced several power outages this year. McGavock said his home is affected even when the homes across the street are not- something he thinks is a result of problems Ameren has with engineering. “I don’t think anything will be done in the future,” said McGavock. Ameren spokesman Leigh Morris said that there are two primary causes of these outages- trees and animals- and that Ameren is taking a series of steps to address these issues. Morris and Starwalt said trees are being trimmed to prevent power outages caused by falling limbs or branches that bounce in the wind. “I know some people get upset by tree trimming, but they get equally upset by power outages,” said Morris. Ameren is recognized as a “Tree Line USA” utility company by the National Arbor Day Foundation, meaning that they properly train tree-trimming workers and help customers select appropriate trees to plant near electric wires. “We meet the most rigid standards for tree trimming,” said Morris. “We’re pro-tree planting, just not in the wrong places.” In addition to taking care of problems caused by trees, Ameren has built fences around several substations in order to prevent animals from getting in. They also installed a non-conductive polymer around copper wire to prevent power outages caused when squirrels or other animals climb into the substations.