RIGHT OF WAY CLEARING
Preventing problems
At The Energy Cooperative, we continue to focus on improving reliability to our members. For our electric members, this means we are working hard to avoid power outages. Power outages can occur for several different reasons. Severe weather, traffic accidents, and even squirrels cause issues on our electric lines. The most common cause for power outages, however, are tree limbs meeting our electrical lines. Tree branches falling on power lines disrupts the reliability of your electric service, and creates an extremely dangerous situation for everyone nearby. We can’t prevent storms. We can, however, make sure the area closest to our power lines is free from tree limbs and debris. To accomplish this, our right of way team conducts aggressive tree trimming and clearing along our electric lines to help prevent problems before they occur.
4 8
THE ENERGY COOPERATIVE TIMES • MAY & JUNE 2017 THE ENERGY COOPERATIVE TIMES
Power outages are not only disruptive for you, they can also be disruptive to us. When the power goes out-- we go out. Having an aggressive right of way program saves our members several thousand dollars annually by reducing employee overtime cost for repairs; limiting outage call center costs; avoiding additional vehicle fuel and maintenance costs; and limiting electric line kWh losses that occur during outages. Clearing the right of way involves cutting, mowing and spraying a minimum of 15 feet from all sides of a single phased electric line, and a minimum of 20 feet from a three phased electric line. We may also use selective herbicides to remove unwanted weeds, brush and trees from the right of way. If total vegetation control is needed to keep the lines clear, we use non-selective herbicides. Our team understands applying herbicides requires
(800) 255-6815
