Blue Ridge Electric Responds to Law Suit
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 (March 31, 2004) – In response to a lawsuit filed recently in Ashe County, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation responded today that their lawyers are reviewing the suit.
Based on statements in the suit, however, it became clear that the plaintiffs don’t understand the purpose of fiber optics in an electric utility’s operations. The cooperative wants to make information available so that the members understand the facts.
Installing fiber optics is now a common electric utility practice on transmission systems. It is the best technology available now in use for communications and therefore plays a strong role in supporting the cooperative’s system operations. Fiber optics are actually long, thin strands of very pure glass about the diameter of human hair. They’re arranged in bundles and, in the case of the power lines involved in the suit, are placed inside the existing “static” wire—the wire on the cooperative’s system that serves as a shield against lightening strikes. Fiber optics is ideal for communications because it can transmit much more information, more quickly than traditional copper wire or even coaxial cable. Easy to install due to its light weight, fiber is also virtually indestructible and is also safe because it doesn’t conduct electricity.
The fiber optic system is run into the cooperative’s substations and is a path for communications via Blue Ridge Electric’s SCADA (Substation Control and Data Acquisition) system. SCADA information flows from the substations to computers in the cooperative’s central control and dispatch area located in the corporate office in Lenoir. System control operators who are stationed there 24 hours a day, seven days a week constantly monitor SCADA for information such as outages and power usage.
This information helps Blue Ridge Electric provide members with more reliable power and quicker response times when an outage occurs. System operators can know more quickly when an outage occurs and often what the cause may be, allowing them to dispatch linemen more quickly to the source of an outage. Because more information can often be obtained about the cause of an outage and because outage locations can often be pinpointed, this provides a greater measure of safety for linemen who often must work in dangerous weather conditions and are constantly working around high voltage. This knowledge and speed of restoration also contributes to a higher level of public safety as downed power lines can be dangerous, even deadly, to those who come into contact with them.
Fiber optics on the Blue Ridge Electric system will also be used as a data path for more reliable customer service over the cooperative’s telephone and computer networks.
The suit also addresses the question of proper easements. In serving some 67,000 members and maintaining over 7,000 miles of line and electric system, thousands of easements have been secured over the 68 years of the cooperative’s operations. It is the practice of the cooperative to contact and inform landowners—even if they are not members of Blue Ridge Electric—any time the cooperative or its contractors has a need to be on the property for major construction and upgrades. Utility easements grant the right to access property for the purpose of maintaining the system, construction, restoration of outages, and other needs associated with the responsibility to provide reliable power to consumers.
The cooperative’s transmission system upgrade currently underway was determined to be a critical need for continuing to serve the entire Blue Ridge Electric membership with highly reliable power. Essentially a superhighway for delivering power to consumers, transmission power lines carry high voltage electric energy over long distances and deliver it to substations where the voltage is reduced to appropriate levels for use in homes and businesses.
The necessity for the upgrade is evidenced by this area’s growth. In the 1950s and 60s when the cooperative’s former transmission system was built, Blue Ridge Electric served around 15,000 to 20,000 members. Today, the number of consumers served by the cooperative has grown to some 67,000 and the number of members served by the cooperative continues to grow at a rate of two to three percent annually. In recent years, the tremendous increase in new home construction and commercial growth has put an even greater strain on the original transmission system to deliver the power needed to serve the membership.
Because the cooperative is owned by its members, all actions taken by the cooperative are for the benefit of its members. Blue Ridge Electric also uses the best technology available to provide the highest reliability of power at the most affordable cost possible. As a not-for-profit cooperative, Blue Ridge Electric’s only objective is to provide members with at-cost, reliable electric service.
Blue Ridge Electric is a not-for-profit cooperative serving some 67,000 member-owners in Caldwell, Watauga, Ashe, Alleghany, Wilkes and Alexander counties.
