Windstorm Ravishes Service Territory; Members Remain Thankful
As a Valentine’s Day windstorm tore through the area last Tuesday, many members were not experiencing any service interruptions thanks to the increased durability of the infrastructure. Aaron Witt, a Tri-County Electric Cooperative (TCEC) member, commented, “When Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc. had crews installing the new high line wires across the area, I stopped and visited with a crew. They told me they were installing wires that would reduce the wires jumping up and down on windy days. I know we have wind frequently, but this was a big test. No power outages around our farm where, previously, there probably would have been.” Another member, C.F. David, credited TCEC with saying, “I’ll stick with my TCEC, thanks. I know who has my back in high winds and blizzards.”
The February 14th event caused nine poles to break, causing 19 separate outages that affected 374 meters, or just 1.5% of our members. Overall, we are very pleased with the reliability of our line and equipment. According to Lyle Mathis, Chief Operations Officer, the increased maintenance programs of the system have equated to fewer outages for the members. Construction standards have been updated to include ductile metal poles, larger wire, and heavier crossarms, which all mean fewer and shorter outages for our members.
Members should remain vigilant again this week as much of the service area is under a fire weather watch. Due to these expected high winds and extremely dry conditions, all transmission and distribution circuits for TCEC have been set to non-reclose. This means that when the grid experiences a fault, it should react by opening immediately to limit the exposure to an arc flash. This can potentially cause widespread outages in the service area of TCEC and may affect restoral times.
Call (580) 652.2418 for more information.
