The outage that occurred on Dec. 24 was the result of high voltage problems on the transmission lines that serve our Rinard Mills and Dart substations, and the Fly metering point. These transmission lines are owned and maintained by American Electric Power (AEP). The high voltage caused loss of power to these substations and the metering point. When this happens, unfortunately there isnt much we can do except wait for AEP to restore the power. It frustrates us any time this happens, but especially during holidays when we know our members have celebrations planned with family and friends. Many of our employees were also affected by the outage, and many were called back in to work to assist with the restoration efforts. The high voltage also caused one of our substation transformers to blow up. Please know that both cooperative and AEP linemen were doing everything they could to get your power restored as quickly as possible. Wed also like to share some information about communication. When major outages occur, we quickly begin experiencing high call volume, which is why you may have heard a busy signal when calling to report your outage. (Please make note of our emergency outage line at 877-544-0279.) It is extremely difficult to accurately determine the duration of an unexpected outage, especially a transmission outage. Sometimes there just isnt any information to share until after the problem has been located, corrected, and investigated. Still, we acknowledge that some information is better than no information, and we have outage communications upgrades and expansion plans in place for 2015. We are working hard toward serving our members better in the area of outage communication. We simply ask that our members understand that it isnt a matter of the cooperative not caring, as weve heard so many times before. We definitely care! And wed love to help our members understand the outage restoration process. If you have any questions about how it works, please send a FB e-mail or e-mail [email protected]. Your cooperative 2015 calendar, which was distributed in the December issue of Country Living magazine, also contains a great poster that describes the steps to restoring power. We also want you to be assured that we have been in communication with AEP regarding this outage, and are doing everything we can to avoid situations like this from happening in the future. Again, please send a FB e-mail or e-mail to [email protected] if you have any questions. We sincerely appreciate your patience and understanding.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Dec 2014 15:50:16 +0000