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2/1/2014
When it comes to battling winter weather conditions, electric linemen work on the front lines (no pun intended).
Weather is the primary cause of power outages. Among electric cooperatives nationwide, weather is responsible for 31 percent of power outages, according to the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.
Despite miserable weather conditions, our linemen do their utmost to keep your lights on. That means responding immediately to service interruptions no matter how extreme the temperature, the wind chill, or the time of day or night. Your call to report a power outage to your electric power association sets in motion a finely tuned response plan that gets your service back on as quickly as possible without compromising workers’ (or your) safety.
Your electric power association works just as hard to prevent power outages. Topping the list of prevention plans is right-of-way clearing. Those workers you see mowing and cutting limbs away from power line rights-of-way help keep your lights on year-round. Limbs too close to power lines can blow or fall onto lines, causing an outage and a dangerous situation. Right-of-way maintenance workers cut limbs and eliminate undergrowth before they become a problem for you and us.
Another effective outage-prevention measure is the installation of lighting arrestors on power lines. A lighting arrestor is a device used to protect our electrical system from damage when lightning strikes. It doesn’t prevent the strike but it does divert the lightning to the earth.
Our electrical system has other built-in mechanical protection, but workers still inspect lines, poles, equipment and substations to prevent future failures. For example, your electric power association routinely inspects poles for signs of decay or damage. You may have noticed a worker knocking the base of a pole with a hammer; he is “sounding” the wood to determine if decay is present. Poles that fail the inspection process are replaced before they cause an outage.
Some outages, however, are unavoidable. You never know when a squirrel, possum, hawk, snake and even a tiny tree frog will trigger a power outage.
Electricity is always looking for a quick path to the ground. Utility pole insulators keep your power flowing safely, but squirrels, for example, can offer electricity a way around insulators. If the squirrel doesn’t jump far enough, it can give electricity a path to the ground through its body and down the utility pole. The power blinks but stays on, unless the squirrel’s body falls into electrical equipment, like a transformer. In that case, safety measures shut off electricity and your electric power association quickly sends a serviceman or line crew to restore power.
Rats sometimes try to turn a neighborhood’s green, pad-mounted transformer into a cozy den. But when a rat gnaws on wires inside the transformer, it gets hurt and cuts power. Again, once the problem is identified, a lineman can make fast work of repair.
Nothing is more important to your electric power association than the reliability, safety and affordability of your electric service. The measures I’ve touched on here go a long way toward meeting all three of those objectives.
