John J. Rounce has been unhappy with his Peco electrical service for decades, complaining about a "constant pattern of outages, spike transients, and service problems" at his Delaware County home.
In 2015, armed with statistics compiled by other disgruntled neighbors near his home on Forest Lake Drive in Upper Providence Township, Rounce filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, alleging that Peco had failed to meet its legal obligation to provide safe and reliable service.
The hearing examiner who heard Rounce's case sided with Peco. But on Wednesday, the PUC voted, 4-1, to uphold Rounce's complaint, citing 18 power outages of at least five minutes since 2011. The average Peco customer experiences fewer than one sustained outage a year.
"While a public utility is not obligated to provide perfect service and facilities 100 percent of the time, I believe there is substantial evidence to support the complainant's reliability concerns," Commissioner David W. Sweet said.
Rounce, an environmental engineer who had also complained to legislators and news media, said Thursday that he was unaware of the PUC's decision. He said he was just about to write to the commission to inquire about the apparent inaction since his February hearing.
"That's fantastic news," he said.
But Rounce won't get a dime for his persistence. He had initially sought compensation for the appliance damage he said was caused by power surges, but the PUC does not award damages in its proceedings.
Nor did the PUC penalize the utility. Sweet's motion acknowledged that Peco had made "numerous efforts" to address the reliability issues. The PUC instead referred the case to its technical and enforcement staffs for further review.
Peco spokesman Greg Smore said Wednesday that the company looks forward to working with the commission staff "to address the reliability issues raised by Mr. Rounce." He also said Peco had one of its best years in 2015 for service reliability.
Andrew G. Place, the lone dissenter on the PUC, said the panel should have upheld the recommendation of Administrative Law Judge Eranda Vero to dismiss Rounce's complaint.
Place said the outages had many different causes: tree growth; a line cut by a contractor; an ice storm; a fallen tree limb; two lightning strikes; two underground cable faults; and two car crashes with utility poles.
"The evidence clearly demonstrates that Peco corrected the various outages through appropriate and safe measures," he said.
But Sweet said the number of sustained outages on the circuit serving Rounce's residence "is simply too high to be dismissed out of hand and merits further review."