Outages Minimal Overnight, Blue Ridge Prepared
For Immediate Release
Contact: Renee Whitener, Director of Corporate Communications, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation, (828) 758-2383 ext. 3213; Pager:1-800-471-1323; or E-mail: Renee Whitener
Lenoir, North Carolina (7 a.m. - February 17, 2003) – While early Sunday morning power was disrupted for about 50,000 members for a little over an hour, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation and its members weathered the rest of the weekend ice storm with mainly scattered outages.
Monday morning, linemen are working to restore what’s remaining of 210 members who were affected by a circuit outage in the Scottsville community of Ashe County. Alleghany County linemen are working on a breaker outage affecting 35 members, while Caldwell County linemen are repairing a transformer outage affecting one member. Overnight in Watauga County, a fuse outage disrupted power for 26 members and a later breaker outage affected 103 members; all power to Watauga County had been restored as of 6 a.m.
The Sunday morning outage affecting 50,000 members in Watauga, Ashe and Alleghany counties was a result of a malfunction of equipment affecting the cooperative’s 100 KV transmission line connecting Boone to West Jefferson. While most of the outages were restored Sunday morning as an ice storm began moving through the area, cooperative personnel continue their investigation into the exact cause and further repair work is underway on Monday.
The remaining 12,000 members in Watauga County involved in the early Sunday morning outage were restored by later that morning. As of 10:30 a.m. Sunday, only 69 members in the Sherwood community of Watauga County remained without power as linemen on foot patrol worked to complete final power restoration efforts by early afternoon.
All Blue Ridge personnel were on high alert status since the storm’s official prediction on Friday. As an added precaution to prepare for what was predicted as one of the most severe ice storms to hit northwest North Carolina in years, Blue Ridge Electric called in 58 contractors to assist linemen in power restoration efforts if needed. The crews were stationed in key areas throughout the cooperative’s service area and were on stand-by, ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice to any area in need on the Blue Ridge Electric system.
Overnight, twenty-four Pike Electric crews were stationed in all four Blue Ridge district areas, 10 Carter Construction crews were stationed in the Caldwell district, with an additional 4 Davis Elliott crews in the Ashe district. Twenty linemen from sister cooperatives in the eastern part of the state were stationed overnight in Hickory, just outside Blue Ridge Electric’s service area that reaches to Lake Hickory in Caldwell County.
Additional customer service representatives were also on duty at Blue Ridge Electric assisting members. In the event of an outage, members are encouraged to call the cooperative’s automated outage reporting and account information line, Powerline, at 1-800-448-2383.
Power outages are likely if a significant amount of ice builds up on lines or trees. While Blue Ridge Electric maintains a dedicated rights-of-way program that has helped reduce the amount of outages in recent years, situations such as very large falling trees or vehicle accidents coming into contact with power poles can interfere with power reliability.
If outages should occur, Blue Ridge Electric’s power restoration plan is as follows:
Steps to Restoring Power
When a major outage occurs, Blue Ridge Electric’s goal is to restore power to as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time. Our power restoration plan calls for emergency centers such as hospitals to take priority for power restoration. Checkpoints and repairs are made in the following order:
1) First, transmission lines are checked and repaired if needed because these lines affect power to thousands of members.
2) Substations, which receive power from transmission lines, are checked and repaired next if damage is present here. Substations also serve thousands of members.
3) Main distribution lines, which serve groups of customers from the substation, are checked next if no problem is found at the first two checkpoints.
4) Tap lines, which serve smaller groups of customers from the distribution lines, are checked next.
5) Finally, lines to individual customers are checked.
Additionally, Blue Ridge Electric also reminds the public that downed power lines can be dangerous or even deadly. Always assume the line is energized and follow these steps if you encounter a downed power line:
(1) Keep away from the line and anything it touches.
(2) Send for help by calling your local Blue Ridge Electric office or 911.
(3) Stand guard, if possible, to keep others away from danger. Following these guidelines may save a life.
