‘Cutting back’ on potential outages

Before a storm ever hits, York Elec­tric Coop­er­a­tive is work­ing to pre­vent pow­er out­ages. We take a proac­tive approach through an ongo­ing, year-round process of main­tain­ing our elec­tri­cal sys­tem rights of way.

We are con­stant­ly clean­ing, clear­ing, and trim­ming trees, brush and debris away from our pow­er lines. Why? When wind, rain, ice or snow weigh down or dam­age trees—these trees or their limbs can fall onto or come in con­tact with pow­er lines and cause out­ages.

Our ongo­ing right-of-way main­te­nance pro­gram helps ensure safe, reli­able elec­tric ser­vice to our mem­bers. You have prob­a­bly seen our main­te­nance con­tract crew’s vehi­cles and equip­ment trim­ming trees and clear­ing cor­ri­dors beneath and along our pow­er lines. Did you know that veg­e­ta­tion, trees, shrubs and brush grow­ing too close to pow­er lines and elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion equip­ment leads to approx­i­mate­ly 15 per­cent of pow­er inter­rup­tions? Main­tain­ing clean and clear sys­tem rights of way also allows YEC to restore ser­vice to mem­bers quick­er and more effi­cient­ly after storms that may have caused out­ages by afford­ing us bet­ter access to dam­aged lines.

Since it is not fea­si­ble for us to clear rights of way on our entire elec­tri­cal sys­tem every year, trees often grow a great deal by the time the crews return. It is an ongo­ing job that’s nev­er done—when the crews fin­ish trim­ming activ­i­ties along our more than 3,500 miles of elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion lines, veg­e­ta­tion is grow­ing back at the start­ing point.

Anoth­er key rea­son for keep­ing our rights of way clear and clean is safe­ty. Acci­dents hap­pen so quick­ly. Chil­dren climb­ing trees can be a tragedy if they touch a limb in con­tact with an ener­gized line or touch the line itself. The result can be severe injury or even death. Adults also are at risk if work­ing around lines in trees. York Elec­tric dis­tri­b­u­tion lines can car­ry up to 24,000 volts—even a touch can be dead­ly.

Trees beau­ti­fy our prop­er­ty, help cool our homes, pro­vide pri­va­cy screens, and even some­times increase our prop­er­ty val­ue if placed prop­er­ly. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, trees and pow­er lines are not a good mix. Trees grow­ing into lines can cause blinks and pow­er out­ages.

Denny Lynn is Vice President of energy delivery.
Den­ny Lynn, Direc­tor of Engi­neer­ing & Oper­a­tions

Before plant­i­ng trees in your yard, think about how tall they may grow and how wide their branch­es may spread. As a rule of thumb, 25 feet of ground-to-sky clear­ance should be avail­able on each side of our util­i­ty poles and lines to give pow­er lines plen­ty of space. Choose tree vari­eties with care and plant with pow­er lines in mind.

Thanks for your cooperation—that’s what makes YEC work!