Providing safe and reliable service is a primary focus for the operations team. A great deal of work goes into making sure that we keep the lights on for you. We do our best to stay ahead of any potential damages a storm can cause to our 200+ miles of service lines.
With inclement weather comes outages and over the last few months we have had our fair share of wind, lightning, and rain. The extra rain has really boosted the growth of trees, vines, and other vegetation which adds to outage potential. Even the extra weight of rain on the leaves can cause a branch to contact wires and blow a fuse. Believe it or not, all year long we have teams out cutting back branches near our poles. Even still, the smallest branch can cause an outage.
Some outages are caused by trees that are not in the public right-of-way and don’t initially look like a threat at all. This year’s rainfall has made for soft ground and these trees can be tall enough to take out service when they fall over.
In addition to our year-round tree trimming, we have a regular schedule of preventative maintenance which includes an annual survey with infrared sensors cameras that show where equipment is starting to degrade. Wires may be worn or fittings may be loose and are more likely to fail. We also track known “trouble spots” and improve the infrastructure in these areas.
We know that no one appreciates it when the power goes out. That’s why we work so hard to take preventative actions which will keep your service safe and reliable. Our crews work day and night to protect your service and restore it whenever there is an issue. You can always get up-to-date information and sign up for outage updates at our Outage Tracker.